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[David Grissom] "Country music is a 90% Bush-supporting bunch.These lamebrains are talented, sure,but they're sticking a finger in the eye of their own customer.""Dixie Chicks? Are they still around?I thought their 15 minutes were up a long time ago."

[Natalie Maines] Oh! [laughing]

[David Grissom] I'm not gonna read the next line.

[Natalie Maines] Come on!

[David Grissom] No, no, no, no ...

[Natalie Maines] We don't get our feelings hurt.

[David Grissom] No, no, no, no.

[Martie Maguire] [reading] "Who are the Dixie Chicks, anyway?I mean, they're not like an important bandwhere you know all their names, like the Beatles.The Dixie Chicks suck. They don't know what they're talking aboutand should shut the fuck up."

[Martie Maguire] It's easy for people to feel a sense of anonymitybehind their computerand write ugly things and hateful things.And, you know, a lot of that stuff you don't take seriously, but when somebody hates you so much for what you saythat they want to kill you ...

[Natalie Maines] I think if you walked out on the street right nowand asked, "What did Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks say?"I don't believe that they would know what I said.But it is a part of ...who we are as a band now, whether we asked for it or wanted it or like it.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] Everybody knows ...

[Emily Robison] [Singing ] Everybody knows ...

[Emily Robison] I feel like ...people relate to us because we're real.And when you're real, you stick your foot in your mouth sometimes.People don't understand how tight we are.We're a sisterhood. We go through the good, the bad and the uglyall together.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] Oh say, can you seeBy the dawn's early light ...

[Announcer] The Dixie Chicks are returning to the roadon their "Top of the World" tourwhich kicks off in London on March 10.And after only three albums, the Dixie Chicksare now the best-selling female group in history.

[Lipton Tea Woman] The Dixie Chicks' musicis rooted in tradition but, just like the Dixie Chicksare redefining the traditional conventions of country music, we're going to redefine tea and serve it up in a way that's new,full of energy and, frankly, is really refreshing.So, Lipton is proud to be the official beverage sponsorof the Dixie Chicks' 2003 "Top of the World" tour.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Hi, I'm Simon Renshaw. I'm the Dixie Chicks' manager.And I just thought I'd take this opportunityto say hello to all of youand welcome you to the tour.And we're looking forward to a good one.

[Chattering]

[Natalie Maines] Who's online?

[Richard] I am.

[Phone ringing]

[Natalie Maines] What's the war update, Richard?

[Richard] They're moving troops but they haven't crossed yet.

[British reporter] Army units are now moving into positionsat the border, battle-ready.The feeling here -- war may be only hours away.

[American reporter] Calling them facts and not assertions,U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell todaypresented what he says is evidencethat Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction.

[Richard Cheney] Simply stated, there is no doubtthat Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

[Donald Rumsfeld] We know they have weapons of mass destruction.We know they have active programs.There -- there isn't any debate about it!

[President George Bush] The danger is clear. Using chemical, biologicalor, one day, nuclear weaponsobtained with the help of Iraq,the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions.Saddam Hussein and his sonsmust leave Iraq within 48 hours.

[Natalie Maines] [To her son Slade] How's it looking?Are you sure it's not too much?

[Slade Pasdar] No.

[Natalie Maines] Hmm.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Okay, let's walk. We've gotta go. Can I have someone take her baby?

Martie, we've gotta hit the stage.

[Emily Robison] Martie, we've gotta go.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Grab Martie, let's go.

[Reporter] Behind the growing buildup to warthere's also a growing antiwar movement.This may have been the biggest political rally in UK history.Perhaps as many as a million people converged on the center of Londonto march and denounce American plans for war.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] I cryNever gonna hold the hand of another guy"Too young for him," they told her.Waitin' for the love of the travelin' soldier

[Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, Martie Maguire] [Singing] Our love with never end.Waitin' for the soldier to come back again

[Natalie Maines] Nevermore to be alone.When the letter saidA soldier's comin' home ...

[Crowd cheering]

[Natalie Maines] Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all.We do not want this war, this violence.And we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.

[Crowd cheering and applauding]

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] You know what? For a first show, it was awesome.It was definitely mission accomplished.

[Martie Maguire] No, but I'm not gonna try to dig you out.I mean, I would end up saying something totally wrong.

[Natalie Maines] Like, I would like to say that my comment was made ...

[Martie Maguire] In reference to ...

[Natalie Maines] ... in reference to the disappointment I feel --or the something I feel --

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Frustration.

[Natalie Maines] -- the frustration I feel as an American citizenfor being ignored.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] All right, so -- I mean, I don't think that we should shy awayfrom controversy.I mean, so -- I mean, wouldn't it be greatif we could get them, like, burning CDsand banning you from the radio ...

[Girls groan]

***

96.3 KSCS

[Woman on phone] We're gonna boycott them for their musicand we're gonna boycott you for playing it if you don't stop playing it.

[Deejay] Well, ma'am, that was the last one you're gonna hear.

[ABC Reporter] The Chicks' number-one hit "Travelin' Soldier"quickly fell from the top of the charts.

[Pam Tyler, kj97] They had the hottest song in the country.All this stuff started, and it died.

dead: no longer alive or living : no longer having life; not able to feel or move; very tired

kill: to cause the death of (a person, animal, or plant) : to end the life of (someone or something); to cause the end of (something); to turn (something) off with a switch

"dead" and "kill", by Merriam Webster Online Dictionary

***

DUBLIN

[Crowd cheering and applauding]

[Natalie Maines] [singing] Daddy sits on front porch swingingLooking out on a vacant field ...

[Natalie Maines] We've never been a political bandand now we're thrown into the middle of thispolitical whirlwind.

[Reporter] The radio station set up these garbage cansfor people to come by and throw out their CDs.

[Woman] I liked them, you know,but for what they said, it's trash.

***

MUNICH

[Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, Martie Maguire] [Singing] Been a long time gone ...

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] They didn't only whack "Traveling Soldier,"they whacked all the play.You've been really targeted by a couple of groups out there.I mean, you've been really targeted.

***

SYDNEY

[Reporter] A taste of things to come:American bombers dropped a seriesof 1,000-lb bombs on the compound.

[Deejay] Now who was the one who talked about the war?Do you regret it?

[Natalie Maines] The thing is,it wasn't even a political statement.It was a joke made to get cheers and applauseand to entertain. And it did.But it didn't entertain America. [chuckles]

[Reporter, CBS The early Show] Some protesters used a tractor and their feetto smash the group's CDs.

[Crowd whistling and cheering]

[Emily Robison] Martie, have you talked to Mom?

[Martie Maguire] No. I left a message ...and then I was sick all day, so I didn't call her again.

[Emily Robison] And I think that's all she wants to hear from us --is how much we know it's affecting her.

[Natalie Maines] The people who got it all startedwas a right-wing group called the Free Republic.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] [On the phone] An extreme right-wing group for their own political reasonsare attempting to manipulate the American media,and the American media is falling for it.The Free Republic is very well organized.There's definitely a Free Republic hit listwith all of the radio stations they're trying to affect.And they are totally focused.And the girls are gonna get whacked.

[To: jagrmeisterThe Dixie Bitch needs to apologize ON STAGE as soon as the stage here in the ...]

[Deejay] Good morning. 61 Country.

[Man on phone] They should send Natalie over to Iraq,strap her to a bomb, and just drop her over Baghdad.

[DON'T MESS WITH THE U.S.A.]

[Natalie Maines] A million things have really pissed me off about it.And I'm ready to go home and set the record straight.

[Dixie Chicks play final chord]

[Crowd cheering and applauding]

***

AUSTIN

2 WEEKS LATER

[Emily Robison] It's not about, necessarily, our point of view.The story's how out of hand it's gotten, isn't it?

[Michael Berland, Lipton consultant] The --- the issue's not that --what -- what has happened is that the issue is not what was said.It's how it's being reported,and how it's been turned into something that it's not.

[Cindi Berger, Lipton consultant] It's snowballed.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] It's all aboutyou were not patriotic. It's gotnothing to do with what was said.

[Michael Berland, Lipton consultant] We're not making excuses,We're not making excuses for beliefs.

[Cindi Berger, Lipton consultant] Because she didn't show supportfor the president.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] It doesn't matter --

[Michael Berland, Lipton consultant] Support for the troops.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] It doesn't matter what was said.

[Michael Berland, Lipton consultant] No, that's --

[Natalie Maines] But that's bullshit!That's bullshit! Who has my statement?They take what they want.

[Michael Berland, Lipton consultant] Exactly!

[Cindi Berger, Lipton consultant] Correct. That's the point.

[Natalie Maines] I already said I'm patriotic.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Absolutely.

[Natalie Maines] In my statement, I said I'm patriotic.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Exactly.

[Natalie Maines] In my statement,I said I support the troops.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Exactly.

[Natalie Maines] But I don't support the troops and I'm not patriotic?

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Exactly, so ...

[Natalie Maines] There you go.

[Cindi Berger, Lipton consultant] That's exactly it.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] That's it!Look, hang on. Let's start by looking at some research,because one of the things that was very interestingwhen Lipton brought Michael's company in was --

[Emily Robison] Was Lipton about to pull out?

[Michael Berland, Lipton consultant] Uh, I think Lipton is concerned.They are looking for a reason to do it.Everybody on the Lipton teamis saying, "Give us a reason to go forward."I think part of the reason that they brought me to you guysis to help you manage through this,because at the end of the day,while you're great musicians, you are a brand.And if somehow your brandis -- is -- now has issues circulating around it,you know, do they want to take that sort of risk?

[Natalie Maines] I -- I personally ... [Laughs]think we should let Lipton off the hook,saying, "We're backing out because, you know,we don't want to hurt their product"and that's it.

[Emily Robison] People have not been able to see our faces,hear our words. To me, that is the greatest advantageof doing an interview -- is that we -- I feel like we are endearing people.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Absolutely.

[Emily Robison] I feel like we will win people overjust by sitting there and looking -- saying honest things.

[Natalie Maines] It's fine. I think this is better for our career.I think we've gotten more attentionthan we ever were going to get.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Absolutely.

[Natalie Maines] We were never gonna be on the cover of "Entertainment Weekly."We were never gonna be interviewed by Barbara Walters.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] 75% awareness?

[Natalie Maines] We were never gonna have these people ...

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] It's insane.

[Natalie Maines] ... who never even knew who we were, care to listen to our music, listen to it.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] But hang on --

[Natalie Maines] And that's fine. I think when we apologize and we tell,blah blah blah, then our fans -- and that will all be smoothed outand worked out. Do I believe --?

[Michael Berland, Lipton consultant] I've got one thing --

[Natalie Maines] But I do think this could affect tea --

[Michael Berland, Lipton consultant] Do it on your terms.Don't -- you're reacting to the reaction.And all I'm saying is, carry on as you want,but do it on your terms.

***

[Thunder rumbling]

[Woman] I think people are gonna say, "Oh my God!What happened to them?"

[Man] But they say "traitor," so ...

[Martie Maguire] It's not what we say about ourselves.It's what people have imposed on us.

[Woman] It's what you've been branded.

[Cindi Berger, Lipton consultant] I -- I'm sorry. I just -- I don't like --that is going to be so prominent on the coverthat my concern is the average person isn't gonna get it.They're gonna be horrified when they see that.

[Natalie Maines] It's not ridiculous to call you opinionated.It's not ridiculous to call you brave.Like, we've got to show how cruel --

[Cindi Berger, Lipton consultant] It's not ridiculous to call you a big mouth.

[Natalie Maines] No, that's true.

[Man laughing]

[Natalie Maines] Truth hurts.

[Rap music playing on stereo]

[Cindi Berger, Lipton consultant] This is a brilliant artistic shot,but just to see "Dixie Sluts" --Jesus Christ!

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] What?

[Cindi Berger, Lipton consultant] You need something to counterbalance it --"Proud American." Yes, they've been branded, but I don't think --I think you're giving too much credit to the American public.They're not that smart.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] I don't think the average person's gonna get any of it.

[Cindi Berger, Lipton consultant] Then we're fucked, if that's the case.Don't -- I -- I'm not -- I'm not gonna go there.This is about fixing it.

[Diane Sawyer] Well, that racy magazine coveron the stands today pretty much sums upsome of the names the Dixie Chicksare being called in America these days --"Traitors," "The Dixie Sluts," "Anti-American" --all because of one split-second commentaimed at President Bush right before the war with Iraq.Maines says she was just trying to fire backwhen she shot herself in the foot.She apologized to the presidentbut it only added fuel to the fire.

[Statement from Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks: As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect. We are currently in Europe and witnessing a huge anti-American sentiment as a result of the perceived rush to war. While war may remain a viable option, as a mother, I just want to see every possible alternative exhausted before children and American soldiers’ lives are lost. I love my country. I am a proud American.]

[Michael Berland, Lipton consultant] You know, what you said and why you said it --you know, you don't rehearse what you say in between songs, and sometimes it doesn't come outthe way that you intend it.

[Natalie Maines] I'm not saying I support their commander-in-chief,but I'll say I support the troops.

[Michael Berland, Lipton consultant] That -- that's fine.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] [Chuckles]

[Michael Berland, Lipton consultant] But try -- try not to be judgmentalof the president. And I'll tell you why:He's got sky-high approval.The war couldn't be going better.By the time this interview airs,he's likely to be at the highest point.

Remember, this is two weeks out.The looting will be done. The rebuilding of Iraq will be started.Saddam Hussein will most likely be dead or found out.It -- I'm just telling you, two weeks from nowit's gonna be even a more positive situation.

***

[Diane Sawyer] Are you ashamed that the President of the United Statesis from your state?

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 -- WHAT A REAL PRESIDENT WOULD HAVE SAID

We now leave the terrain of what actually happened, and move to a hypothetical sphere in which we can best try to shed further light on the events of 9/11. At this point a detailed account and timelines of what really happened behind the scenes on 9/11 cannot be attempted. However, we can speculate as to what an honest and courageous president might have done. Such a president might not have immediately understood the full scope of the 9/11 plot, but he would have insisted upon political accountability for appointed officials and on an immediate and thorough investigation. Some guidance might have come from an examination of the Ed Meese press conference of November 1986 which blew the lid off the Iran-contra scandal, and which was accompanied by the firing of Oliver North and John Poindexter, then the NSC director. The speech on the evening of 9/11 might have sounded something like this:

My fellow citizens:

Today our country and our political system have been targeted by large-scale acts of terrorism. These are monstrous crimes against humanity, and they will not go unpunished. We send our solidarity to the brave firemen, policemen, military people, and office workers who have borne the brunt of this assault. We promise an equitable and equal compensation for the human losses of this day. Insistent and irresponsible voices have been raised in my own White House and in the intelligence agencies, and have inspired media reports attributing these attacks to Arab or Islamic terrorists of the al Qaeda Bin Laden organization. But this is no time for snap decisions or a rush to judgment when we are dealing with the present and future peace of the world. It is true that we have bitter enemies around the world, but the capabilities displayed today appear to go far beyond the technical and physical means available to al Qaeda. We must also recall that, under the reckless and irresponsible policies of my predecessors, the CIA had been one of the main sponsors of Bin Laden and al Qaeda. If we think back to the attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, we remember that media voices attempted in the first hours to attribute that tragedy to the Arab world. Although I am convinced that we still do not know the full story of Oklahoma City, it is clear that the Arab world was not involved.

There are too many unanswered questions at this point. How were the terrorists who seem to have been involved allowed to enter the United States and operate freely in this country? Why was there no air defense over a period of one hour and fifteen minutes? I have ordered an immediate inquiry into this question, and in the meantime I have accepted the resignations of Gen. Myers of the Air Force, the deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and of Gen. Bernhard of NORAD, whose agency failed the people today. There is also evident reason to believe that the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service have not performed satisfactorily, based on the fragmentary accounts available so far. I have therefore accepted the resignations of the leaders of those agencies, and of their principal deputies. I have furthermore accepted the resignation of the Secretary of Defense and his deputy, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Transportation, and of my National Security Adviser, since it is evident to me that they could not continue to serve the nation effectively because of the immense tragedy which has occurred on their watch. We rightly demand accountability from teachers, from railroad engineers, and from physicians. We therefore have all the more reason to demand accountability and responsibility from those who have been entrusted with the management of the executive departments, several of which have not served us well today.

Another question involves the collapse of the World Trade Center towers many minutes after they had been impacted by the airplanes. These events, as you know, represent an absolute anomaly in the history of skyscrapers. In particular, there is no explanation whatsoever for the collapse of building seven at five o 'clock in the afternoon.

Accordingly, and consistent with our urgent measures to save any victims remaining in the rubble, I am ordering the Seventh Mountain Division of Fort Drum, New York, to seize control of the site of the World Trade Center, cordoning it off as a crime scene and taking immediate measures for preserving the evidence we must have to determine what really happened. Not one scrap of metal will be removed before a full forensic survey has been carried out. Contrary to media accounts, we have not been able to identify the flying object which apparently hit the Pentagon, although it seems likely that it was not a Boeing 757, and thus could hardly have been United flight 73. As for the tragedy over Shanksville, we are investigating whether this aircraft was shot down by our own forces, and why. All crash sites are being secured by military units, acting under my direct orders, whose loyalty to the Constitution is beyond question.

The overriding question is whether the criminals who acted today enjoyed support or collaboration from within our own country and even within our own government. I have created a special unit of federal investigators which will act under my direct orders and which will report to me and to me alone. The first task of that unit will be to determine why there was no air defense, in violation of the standard operating procedures of NORAD and the FAA. Another task will be to examine the entire roster of FBI and CIA double agents presently infiltrating terrorist groups and how they are managed, with a view to identifying possible factors of collusion. Another task will be to determine why our watch list procedures and other forms of vigilance were not effective in screening the criminals out.

As far as the FBI is concerned, I urge the Congress to join me in breaking up this tragically dysfunctional agency. After Ruby Ridge, Waco, the FBI crime lab, Wen Ho Lee, the Atlanta Olympics and Richard Jewel, the withheld documents in the McVeigh case, we now have September 11, 2001. The FBI has never recovered from the corruption and mismanagement instilled during the fifty year reign of J. Edgar Hoover, a man whom we know today to have been unfit for public office. The FBI has many dedicated public servants, but they are trapped today in a structure of incompetence, corruption, and worse. Accordingly, I am placing the FBI into receivership by executive order with immediate effect; this agency will operate for the time being under the direction of my special assistant for internal security.

In determining the full scope of what happened today, I need the help of all our citizens. If you know something important about what happened today, I want to hear it. Call the White House and talk with one of my staff, who are mobilized to take your calls. If you see anyone, including especially federal agents, attempting to tamper with evidence, or if a federal agent attempts to intimidate you into saying you saw or heard something you did not see, I want to know about that, too.

I am also determined to find out if foreign intelligence agencies or foreign citizens were involved in today's events. I am appointing myself as temporary Director of the CIA, and in that capacity I will undertake a comprehensive review of foreign operations on American soil. No foreign agency will be exempted, and I promise you a full initial progress report.

In addition to the immediate investigations I have mentioned so far, I am also empanelling a board of inquiry to study today's events and offer a second opinion on what may have gone wrong. I am asking Senator Byrd to be the chairman of this body, and Lawrence Walsh, a Republican, the former Iran-contra prosecutor, to be the vice chairman. I have invited former Secretary of the Treasury O 'Neill, former President Carter, General Zinni, former Governor Ryan of Illinois to serve. I am also actively soliciting participation by outsiders and academics who have been critics of our government policies of recent years. I am inviting Susan Sontag, Eric Foner, Noam Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Howard Zinn, and Seymour Hersh to become members of the board of inquiry. Let them play the devil's advocates, if they will, so long as we obtain truth and justice. They will all receive the necessary security clearances directly from me personally, if necessary. I will personally supervise the rapid declassification of documents as recommended by the board of inquiry in order to educate the public about the board's findings. We all remember the failure of the Warren Commission; that failure will not be repeated during my presidency.

I recall the words of President Eisenhower in the wake of the Kennedy assassination: the American people, he commented will not be stampeded. I ask you to support your government and its constitutional institutions, and not to give way to the voices of hatred, fear, aggression, and paranoia. I promise that swift justice will be rendered for those who have struck us today, no matter who they turn out to be.

These dastardly attacks will not force this great nation off course; they will not force us to become something we are not. We will remain ourselves. We will go forward in the great American tradition of the Monroe Doctrine, the Good Neighbor Policy, the Bretton Woods system, the Marshall Plan, and the Four Freedoms of the Atlantic Charter, starting with the freedom from fear.

Further attacks cannot be ruled out in the coming days and weeks. Because of the office I hold, and because of the constitutional responsibilities I must meet, I ask for your support -- no matter what may happen during the coming days and weeks.

Good night.

SEPTEMBER 25, 2001 -- WHAT A REAL PRESIDENT WOULD HAVE SAID

A real president would have glanced at Cicero's orations against Catiline, with which that orator had gone into the Roman Senate to stop the impending coup d'etat of the bankrupt aristocrat Lucius Sergius Catilina in 63 BC, who had planned to seize power through a massacre of Roman political leaders. He would have been mindful of General de Gaulle's 1962 speech in which he expressed his determination to defeat the coup attempt of four fascist generals in Algiers.

My fellow citizens:

Tonight I would like to present, as promised, a progress report on the investigations into the events of September 11, investigations which have been the main task of your government over the past several weeks. The tidings I bring you this evening are very grave, and they are related to the tempestuous events of the last few days which are known to you in whole or in part.

As many of you may know, during the morning of 9/11 the White House received a telephone call saying, "Angel is next." "Angel" was the top-secret code word designating my official aircraft, Air Force One, so this was a threat to shoot down Air Force One. It was also something more: as I realized immediately, it was quite possible that this telephone call had indeed come from the authors of the 9/11 terror attacks. If that was so, there existed the definite possibility that this group, whoever they were, also had access to other top-secret code words used by our government. This meant that there was imminent danger that the terrorist group might possess the code words and related signals that could be used to target thermonuclear ballistic missiles on targets in foreign countries -- or even here at home. A duplicate of the briefcase known as "the football," which follows me everywhere, might be in the hands of the plotters. I decided at once to proceed as quickly as possible to the headquarters of the Strategic Air Command in Nebraska with a small force of bodyguards for the purpose of countermanding, by the immediate physical presence of the commander in chief, any and all illegal attack orders that might be issued by the rogue terrorist network which had so plainly declared war on our country. My intent was to assume direct personal control over the nuclear deterrent forces of this country, wherever they might be located.

During my flight to Nebraska, I received a phone call which presented this threat in the most concrete form. The call came from a man who identified himself as the spokesman for a secret organization of clandestine operatives and special forces -- clearly a subversive and insurrectionary group acting as a tool for a coterie of very powerful, wealthy, and ruthless persons. This spokesman told me that his organization had orchestrated the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as a means of reversing the inexorable decline of American power in the world -- a process which I and my elected predecessors had been wholly negligent in allowing, he asserted. He also demanded that I immediately make a televised public statement identifying al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, Afghanistan, and Iraq as those responsible for the terror attacks, and announcing our government's plans to invade and occupy these two countries. Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, he added, might have to come later. If l failed to accept this ultimatum, the conspirators were determined to use the nuclear launch code words in their possession to destroy Cairo, Baghdad, Teheran, Rabat, Tunis, Karachi, Jakarta, Damascus, Pyongyang, Riyad, Havana, and possibly other cities. That would start 100 years of war of civilizations, they told me, and once it had started, nothing could stop it. I told this spokesman that he and his group, in addition to being guilty of high treason, were courting suicide. The Russian Federation might interpret the missile firings as the beginning of a US first strike against Russian targets, and might respond by initiating procedures for launch under attack, in an attempt to use their nuclear assets against us before they were destroyed on the ground. The People's Republic of China might respond in the same way. These countries might also conclude that our government had been taken over by madmen, and that their only hope of safety might lie in the use of military means against us. The spokesman for the group of plotters replied that those dangers were real, but that it was up to me to avoid this danger by granting the demands of the terrorist controllers, which came down to US attacks on Afghanistan, and Iraq, with the overthrow of the government of Saudi Arabia likely along the way. The terror group, he boasted, welcomed the bloody global conflict that I seemed to fear, and even regarded the prospect of world war engulfing this planet as preferable to the relative decline of the United States for which he said I and those like me were responsible.

At this moment, our country faced the greatest danger in our entire history. To accept the ultimatum of the plotters and to wage war against their target list of Arab and Islamic states would have cast the United States adrift on an ocean of blackmail, lies, and adventures. Blackmailers always escalate their demands, and the addiction to terrorism of the victorious criminal network might have poisoned our national life for decades, or even for centuries. If I had capitulated; I would have been a puppet of the plotters for as long as I remained in office, indeed for the rest of my life. On the other side, the danger of world war was immediate. I decided that the only honorable course coherent with my oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution was to defy the terrorists. At this point we had reached the SAC headquarters in Nebraska. I terminated my conversation with the spokesman for the plotters.

At this point, I activated several units of the Secret Service and Army intelligence under hand-picked officers whose constitutional loyalty I knew I could trust. I briefed them on what I knew so far, and gave them the task of finding the rogue terror network and rooting it out. These fine patriotic men and women went to work at once, and within 72 hours the main outlines of the plot were evident. Let me sum up what we have learned so far.

A group of al Qaeda operatives, manipulated by a cabal of rogue CIA case officers, had chosen September 11 to hijack several aircraft, force them to land, and use the passengers as hostages to extort the liberation of certain prisoners being held in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Among these al Qaeda operatives were several double agents, also under the control of rogue elements in our own intelligence community. These were dissolute and evil persons, who had been trained using the infrastructure left over from the Iran-contra affair.

Air defense that day was completely absent, in part because of four air exercises which were taking place at the same time in various parts of North America. A number of officers in critical positions at NORAD, its regional office in Rome, New York, and in the FAA appear to have been party to the plot. By a kind of collective inertia, they ignored the well-known and long-established standard operating procedures which govern the cooperation of FAA and NORAD, and were able to misdirect our few remaining fighter interceptors, out over the Atlantic Ocean in one case. More arrests are imminent as a result of ongoing investigations in this area.

What the al Qaeda operatives apparently did not know was that the aircraft they had chosen to hijack had been equipped with a new technology making it possible to seize control of these aircraft and operate them by remote control from a command center on the ground. It was this new technology, and not the dubious skills of the hijackers, which allowed the planes to hit their targets with such precision.

But even direct hits by the two planes could not have been enough to bring down the towers. According to the information we have developed, the collapse of World Trade Center buildings one, two, and seven was the direct result of controlled demolition -- the result of explosive charges which had been placed in these buildings over the previous days and weeks by the terror network, who infiltrated the buildings in the guise of cleaning and security personnel. We have not yet been able to solve all the problems posed by the collapse of the twin towers, since energy sources appear to have been at work which go beyond the realm of today's conventional technology. I will have more to report on this later, In the meantime, I regret to report that I have had to order the arrest of the Mayor of New York, who repeatedly attempted to bring about the destruction of evidence at the crime scene.

As for the Pentagon, it was struck by a US Air Force cruise missile fired from an aircraft above West Virginia, and not by one of the hijacked airliners. We have not yet been able to determine what happened to American flight 77, and we call on citizens to come to our aid in this matter. The launch of the cruise missile was the work of an entire Air Force unit in Ohio, and these traitors have all been taken into custody.

The airplane that crashed in Shanksville was cynically shot down through the actions of a rebel mole placed in a highly sensitive position at NORAD. This mole was aware that the passengers had retaken control of the aircraft from the lightly armed hijackers, and realized that the interrogation of the hijackers on board would have revealed critical dimensions of the real plot in which the hijackers, although certainly acting with criminal intent, were ultimately mere expendable pawns. The NORAD mole also feared that an examination of the aircraft might reveal the presence of the remote control technology, which had for some reason failed to function. Accordingly, the mole cynically directed jet interceptors to destroy this airplane, even though it was far away from any target of interest to the hijackers.

Several FBI officials and agents have been indicted for obstruction of justice; they have been accused of destroying security camera tapes at the Pentagon, and intimidating witnesses at the Pentagon and in Shanksville. Members of the FBI crime lab and the NTSB team have been discovered attempting to sabotage the cockpit voice recorders of the planes in question; the recordings we have heard are consistent with the account of the 9/11 events I have just described.

Sadly, I must address the three mysterious suicides from the highest ranks of our own government which have caused so much speculation over the past several days. The vice president was found dead in his bunker at Site R last Thursday; the coroner has ruled this a suicide, and has established that the cause of death was a potassium cyanide pill. The same finding has been delivered in the case of the former deputy secretary of defense some hours later on that same day. The death of the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by a gunshot wound to the head in the Pentagon at around that same time has also been ruled a suicide. I can only confirm that arrest warrants for all three had been issued by a federal grand jury empanelled to investigate the tragic events of September 11.

The mutiny of the Delta Force battalion based near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, has been quelled by loyal troops and planes. The appeal of the rebel commander for a military rebellion against the legal government and for a military coup has been ignored.

As you may also know, a top former anti-terror official and several other high officials of the CIA and FBI have been missing for over two weeks, and are presumed to have fled abroad. I can confirm that arrest warrants have been issued for these persons. A number of journalists have also disappeared, and this may also be related to the recent upheaval. I can assure you that our constitutional procedures are just as vigorous as they have ever been, that habeas corpus remains alive, well, and in full force. We have no secret prisons and no secret prisoners, and I will tolerate none. Our open courts continue to function, and they will continue to do so.

We have uncovered complicity between the rogue network in this country and a number of foreign intelligence agencies. One of these is the British MI-6. After the raid by Scotland Yard on the headquarters of MI-6 in Oxford Circus, and after the resignation of Mr. Blair, I look forward to working with the new Labour Party prime minister to eradicate any remaining insurrectionary elements. We continue to observe the situation in several other countries we believe may have been involved in the 9/11 plot. I regret that General Sharon has refused to cooperate, and I invite the Congress to consider what response may be required.

I would like to thank President Putin of the Russian Federation and the leadership of the People's Republic of China for their wisdom and restraint, especially during the morning of 9/11, when the rebel network engaged in visible preparations for a nuclear launch. I am certain that the great powers, having weathered this storm, will be able to return to the path of confidence building measures at our summit next week.

More details will be announced as soon as practicable. In conclusion, let me say a few words about the state of the world.

I do not assert that terrorism is a spontaneous outgrowth of poverty and misery. In fact, I assert the opposite: terrorism is usually organized by an outside agency, often by a government or a network operating inside a government. But it is certainly true that poverty and misery provide the indispensable environment in which terrorist groups can recruit, or be created by intelligence agencies. In today's world, there are about 2 billion people who are attempting to get by on less than $1 per day. There are some 600 million homeless -- that is equal to about the entire population of Europe. About one and one half billion people do not have clean water to drink. With about one billion people unemployed, the unemployment rate in our world is about 33%, about one third. When that happened in our own country during the 1930s, we called that a great depression, and we must therefore acknowledge the existence of a world economic depression of unprecedented severity today. Two thirds of the people in the world -- 65% -- have never made a phone call. About 40% do not have access to electricity for household use; I would call that a clear need for rural and urban electrification. Every day in this world of ours, some 40,000 human beings perish from malnutrition and from easily treated diseases like diarrhea. Another 40,000 lose their lives each month as the result of warfare, all of which is absolutely futile and which has often been cynically fomented by foreign economic interests. I am thinking here of the crisis in Africa most specifically. In Africa, the standard of living of the average family has declined by 20% over the last twenty years. Eighty-nine countries are now worse off than they were at the beginning of the 1990s. 175 million people leave their home countries every year in the desperate search for jobs and food -- about 3% of humanity. The price of a human slave on the slave markets of southern Europe at this very moment is about 4,000 euros. In the midst of all this, the two hundred fifty-eight richest persons in the world own more in the way of assets and other property than the poorest 3 billion persons. When two hundred fifty eight own more than half of the human population of the world, I hope you will agree with me that such a world cannot be stable. Yet, this is the world that lies before us. I plan to use my powers as president to ameliorate this situation with every means at my disposal, and I call upon the Congress and upon all citizens to support these steps for a new world economic order that will be more just, more equitable, more prosperous, and more dynamic.

We have now been tested in the crucible of a brutal crisis. From this experience we must take renewed devotion to our best values. The decade of globalization has been revealed as a colossal failure, for ourselves as well as for others. We must find a better, more humane, more equitable way of organizing the affairs of this planet, To do this, we must work closely with almost two hundred sovereign states, and work out the details with them, since every country has an inherent right to economic development, science, technology, and dignity. The old imperialism denied these, and the old imperialism is now on the junkheap of history. In the days to come, my two lodestars will be peace and economic development, seen as the two sides of the same coin. Our world has turned over several times in the past month, but I am more certain than ever that I can count on the support of the American people in getting the world back on the right track. I ask you once again to remember the victims of the recent tragedy in your prayers. Good night.

CONCLUSIONS

So far we have come to the following conclusions:

1. The government's assertion that the so-called hijackers operated without being detected by official surveillance is untenable, and evidence is strong that the alleged hijackers acted in coordination with a faction within the government itself. The hijackers were therefore in all probability expendable double agents or, more bluntly, patsies.

2. The government's assertion that the four supposedly hijacked airliners were taken over and piloted by the four accused hijackers identified by the FBI is at or beyond the limits of physical and technical reality. The planes were in all probability guided to their targets by some form of remote access or remote control.

3. The government's assertion that the failures o fair defense were caused by the fog of war is lame and absurd. Air defense was in all probability sabotaged by moles operating inside the government.

4. The government's assertion that a Boeing 757-200 hit the Pentagon is physically impossible. Some other type of flying object, possibly a cruise missile, must therefore be considered.

5. The government's assertion that the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapsed as a result of the impact of aircraft and of the subsequent fire is physically impossible. The fall of the towers cannot be explained without the hypothesis of controlled demolition of some form, possibly including unconventional methods employing new physical principles.

6. The government's assertion that World Trade Center 7 collapsed at 5:20 PM EDT on September 11 purely as a result of fire is physically impossible. The collapse of WTC 7 is coherent with controlled demolition of the conventional type.

7. The government's assertion that United Flight 93 crashed because of actions by the hijackers or because of a struggle in the cockpit is physically impossible, given the pattern in which the wreckage was distributed. All evidence points towards the hypothesis that United 93 was shot down by US military aircraft.

8. The government's refusal to investigate insider trading in American Airlines and United Airlines put options, the wholesale seizure and destruction of evidence, the systematic intimidation of witnesses by the FBI, and a series of other incidents point unmistakably to an attempted coverup on the part of the entire US government and establishment.

BUSH IN HELL

At the bottom of Dante's Inferno, in that third part of the traitors' ninth circle which is called Tolomea, Dante and Vergil encounter a certain Frate Alberigo of Faenza. Tolomea is devoted to that species of traitors who have betrayed their own guests. The peculiarity of Frate Alberigo is that he is apparently alive on earth, even while his soul is being tormented in the depths of Hell. Frate Alberigo explains that in cases of particularly heinous betrayal, the damned soul departs from the body and descends directly into Hell. The body remains alive, but it is operated by a demon during the rest of its natural life span. Something similar happened to Bush when he betrayed his oath of office by turning the US government over to the rogue network on 9/11. The demon has been in control ever since.

[Natalie Maines] No, I'm not truly embarrassedthat, you know, President Bush is from my state.That's not really what I care about.It was the wrong wording.Am I sorry I said that? Yes.Am I sorry I spoke out? No.

[Diane Sawyer] But you can't tell me that at no pointthe two of you,however much you love her,however much you understand her --that you didn't say,"Why did she do that? Why did she do that? Why did she do that?"Why can't you say that?

[Martie Maguire] Partially why our audiencehas allowed us to get to where we are todayis because they like her the way she is.

BEGALA: Let me ask you a question, then you can give your answer. The question is, doesn't our president have better things to do than attack the Dixie Chicks, who are country singers? Doesn't he have a country to run?

DORNAN: Now, wait a minute. The reason I watch this show is to learn. I didn't know that he got in the fight. He attacked them?

BEGALA: On NBC News, he said that, "I suppose people have the right to speak their mind, but they shouldn't get their feelings hurt if they get boycotted."

DORNAN: Here's the people that I will drop what I'm doing and watch them debate the issues. Michael is one of them. And U2's Bono was another, because he's always gentlemanly, he studies, he knows his facts. He's traveled. But people who call themselves the Dixie Chicks, when they should be the Hollywood Chicks or the Manhattan Chicks ...

BEGALA: So why is Bush attacking them? Why doesn't he go run the country?

DORNAN: What did he actually say? You know what I -- wait a minute. Last night, I suffered through the whole hour with Diane Sawyer. She gave them 20 chances to really apologize, and I turned to my wife and said, you know what? If I were Bush, I'd invite them to the White House in Crawford and I'd say to her, what is your gripe? Why did you think you were ashamed of me?

[Rudy Blair, 680-News] Hi. Rudy Blair, 680-News.I guess I'm gonna have to be the evil one on this one.I gotta ask, how have things been goingsince this whole Bush controversy?How are things going for you guys now?

[Natalie Maines] Our album sales are definitely downand we don't get played on the radio.

[Martie Maguire] We heard they've turned what happened to us into a verb.You can get "Dixie-Chicked." [Laughs]And if we had to be the example, that's fine.

[Natalie Maines] We don't want this to be our legacy.We want our music to be our legacy.And one positive with that is it's sort of opened the door for usto do anything musically that we wanna do nowwithout feeling any pressures that we have to please,because we don't really have anyone to answer to,as far as radio is concerned.

***

2005

LOS ANGELES

SUNSET SOUND

[Tuning instruments]

[Man laughs]

[Emily Robison] Oh yeah, baby.

[Martie Maguire] That's a nice touch.

[TONITE THE DIXIE CHICKS]

[All laughing]

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] It's been two long years nowSince the top of the worldCame crashing down and da da da ...

[Martie Maguire] [On phone] Doing good. We moved out to L.A. just for a little while, just for Emily to have the babiesand us to write some music and stuff.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] ... Oh, II can ...

[Natalie Maines] Well, first of all, I think there should be some "we's," like ...But we're taking the long way.I hit the highway.With two sisters in a pink RV ...

[Martie Maguire] [Laughing]

[Dan Wilson, recording artist] That's hilarious.

[Natalie Maines] Wouldn't kiss all the asses that ...

[Dan Wilson, recording artist] Oh, ho ho!

[Natalie Maines] ... that they told me to.Is that good?Gave a lot of blowjobs, but wouldn't kiss all the asses?

[All laughing]

[Natalie Maines] 'Cause you did kiss some ass.

[Dan Wilson, recording artist] That's good. I don't know if I could sing that,but if you could, more power to ya.

[Emily Robison] What -- what about, "I fought with a stranger"?

[Martie Maguire] Fought with a stranger, yeah.

[Emily Robison] Kinda like the stranger is Bush.It's not --

[Natalie Maines] Good, Emmie, good!Big money, big money!

[All laughing]

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] Well, I fought with a strangerAnd I met him myselfI opened my mouth and I heard myself ...

[Natalie Maines] I mean, we've never been able to write a whole album of songs.And when you're writing so much,you start noticing just things in your everyday lifethat are worthy of a song.

[Emily Robison] And almost anything that isn't written by us,now, at least on this album, seems a little bit false almost.

[Martie Maguire] This record is, like you said,our therapy, in a way.This is what we wanna say.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] ... It's been two long years nowSince the top of the worldCame crashing downAnd I'm getting it back on the road nowBut I'm taking the long wayTaking the long way aroundTaking the long wayTaking the long way around.

[Dan Wilson, recording artist] That sounded great.

***

[Chad Smith, drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers] Yeah, come in.

[Natalie Maines] How do y'all -- do y'all all write your songs?

[Chad Smith, drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers] Yeah. I mean, we'll just get in the roomand we'll just jam and improvise.And something will start from a drumbeat or a bass line ...

[Natalie Maines] Does everyone write equally on everything?

[Chad Smith, drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers] No.

[Natalie Maines] But you split writing equally?

[Chad Smith, drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers] Yep.

[Natalie Maines] Wow.I wouldn't feel right if I was ...

[Chad Smith, drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers] The guy doing all the --

[Natalie Maines] ... you know, the bass player or whatever --I wouldn't feel right taking writing credit or money.

[Martie Maguire] But he's smart to keep them happy, in a way,because band memberstend to start resenting the lead singer no matter whatbecause they get more attention --

[Martie Maguire] Well, he could go solo. That's the thing that the lead singercould hang over the band's head.Yeah.

***

[Martie Maguire] [Talking about Emily] You know why she picked up the banjo?Because we all played violin,and I started playing fiddleand I was really jealous of her playing the fiddle,because whatever I would do, she would do better --like sports, whatever.

[Chad Smith, drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers] Yeah.

[Martie Maguire] And so when she would play the fiddle,I'd go in and I'd, like, beat her over the head with my fiddle.

[All laughing]

[Chad Smith, drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers] So you drove her to the banjo.

[Martie Maguire] So mean. So I was like, "You have to pick another instrument."

[Chad Smith, drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers] Wow.

[Martie Maguire] So I don't know why she picked the banjo.

[Jim Scott, recording mixer] It worked out good. It's a good combo.

[Martie Maguire] [Laughs] Yeah.Oh, she was just -- oh, just that little sisterthat just -- anything you did, she just had to one-up ya.

[All laughing]

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] ... Every day ...

[JIM SCOTT, recording mixer]

[Natalie Maines] Check check.Did we do as long an intro on the real version as we did the demo?

[Chad Smith, drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers] Yeah.

[Natalie Maines] Okay.

[Jim Scott, recording mixer] Should we try one?

[Chad Smith, drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers] Yeah.

[Jim Scott, recording mixer] All right, here we go.

[Upbeat music playing]

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] International airportA quarter after 9:00Paris, Texas, Athens, Georgia's Not what I had in mind.As I'm getting out I laugh to myself'Cause this is the only placeWhere as you're getting on the planeYou see Buddy Holly's faceI hear they hate me nowJust like they hated youMaybe when I'm dead and goneI'm gonna get a statue tooTemptation's strong ...

[Dog barking]

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] ... I'm on my wayTo hell's half-acreHow will I everHow will I everGet to heaven now?Get to heaven now?

[Rick Rubin, producer] That's incredible.

[Natalie Maines] Thanks.Now this -- do you wanna know what this is about?

[Rick Rubin, producer] Sure.

[Natalie Maines] It's about Lubbock, Texas. [Laughs]

[Rick Rubin, producer] I remember there was the line about the statue.

[Natalie Maines] And Buddy Holly.

[Rick Rubin, producer] Yeah.

[Martie Maguire] They hated him when he was a starand they thought he was evil and rock 'n' roll and,you know ...

[Emily Robison] It's Natalie's hometown too.

[Martie Maguire] And they basically turned --

[Rick Rubin, producer] Oh, Lubbock?

[Martie Maguire ] -- the whole city basically turned on her,and all the radio stations were horrible and ...

[Rick Rubin, producer] It's like Buddy Holly all over again. [Turns on stereo]

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] In a city full of strangersLivin' life so fast ...

[Rick Rubin, producer] Seems much more ordinary right off the bat.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] ... Never sleeping ...

[Natalie Maines] Yep.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] Distractions everywhere

[Natalie Maines] This line ...

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] All I wantAll I need ...

[Rick Rubin, producer] Good change.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] Is somehow to believeIn the choice ...

[Rick Rubin, producer] In this chorus, the melody is good.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] I've madeAnd I'm better off this way

[Rick Rubin, producer] The chords and the melody are strong.Do you not like the words?

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] I can hear the voice inside my head ...

[Rick Rubin, producer] [Turns off stereo] It's worth pursuingeven though you don't like it.But I would rewrite all the words.I think -- I think the pre-chorus and chorus,musically and melodically, are really strong.

[Natalie Maines] I'm just missing a connection to the lyrics.

[Rick Rubin, producer] Just rewrite --rewrite 'em for yourself.

[Natalie Maines] Yeah, easy for you to say.

[All laugh]

[Natalie Maines] You rewrite. No, I'm kidding. [Laughs]

[Rick Rubin, producer] Then you won't feel a connection.

[Martie Maguire] I'm still a little confused.I'm still having a hard time hearing,like, our role in some of the songs.Because at the end of the day,you know, what's best for the songhas to be best for the song. It cant' be a forced --"Let's slap some fiddle on therejust because I play the fiddle," you know?

[Rick Rubin, producer] I -- I -- at this point, I -- my interestis just any way we can get great songs,from any direction.And then we'll put it throughwhatever the Dixie Chicks' filter is gonna become,which we'll see. It'll -- it's gonna reveal itselfas we work on the songs.

[Lloyd Maines, Natalie's father] We did a demo tape for Nataliefor her to get into Berklee School of Music up in Boston.And I was playing a gig with the Chicks in Dallas or somewhere, and I just gave 'em a cassette.You know, it wasn't really pitching her at all. It was just like, "Hey,check this out. It's my daughter."I think it was about a year before they even heard it.I mean, they kind of left it in their motor home --the pink motor home that you hear about.But, apparently, Martie and Emily must have kept it in the back of their minds,and when they decided to change lead singers,they called about Natalie.

[Jim Scott, recording mixer] That was an incredible song, man.

[Lloyd Maines, Natalie's father] Oh, good.

[Jim Scott, recording mixer] You just blew everybody else off the record.

[All laughing and chattering]

[Lloyd Maines, Natalie's father] I was barely trying.

[All laughing]

***

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] I met the Chicks in 1994.

[Country music playing]

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] There they were, and they had their hair really big,and they had the hoop dresses onand the spangles and the cowboy hats.And they went on stage and they performed these songswhich were pretty bad --basically, Western swing,very old-fashioned, very not contemporary.But the one thing that was very, very clearwas that they were three beautiful girls,and incredibly talented, and they could really play.And if they had a willingness to kind of like change direction,moving more into a contemporary country music space,there actually could be a really interesting slot for them.We had to go out, we had to find the right materialand we had to develop it into something new.But anytime the girls say to me,"You know what, Simon? We can't believethat you booked us here.How could you have let that happen?"I go, "How could I have let that happen?Just remember who booked this show" -- oh, yes. This is 1996.This is the Pillsbury Bake-Off.And that's in the -- which department is this in?Oh, that's the produce department they're playing in --a fantastic booking, one that I had nothing to do with.The girls handled this all by themselves.

***

[Natalie Maines] Could it be something aboutmaybe the fear of losing that one personthat you know you can go to,and sort of your salvation,or your sanity?

[Dan Wilson, recording artist] Mm-hmm.

[Door opens]

[Emily Robison] Oh, hi!

[Babysitter] Hi!

[Emily Robison] I missed you! I missed you.He looks so big. I haven't seen you in so long.You look so different.You look like more of a boy.You look like you've been eating nothing but ribs and Cheetos with Dada.

[Emily Robison] But then, you know, all of a sudden, we start trying,and nothing's happening.You know, you start to get a little nervous.It was about two and a half years of just nothing,and going through fertility treatments --everything from artificial inseminationall the way to what eventually ended up being in vitro.

[Martie Maguire] My sister and I both went through in vitro.Emily started trying first and,oh, I watched her do it all. And it just went on and on.It's an expensive process. It's hard on your bodywith all the hormones, all the injections.You have to take a lot of drugs and alter your cycle,alter your chemistry in a lot of ways.And it's a huge deal.

[Gareth Maguire, Martie's husband] Yeah, but we just assumedthat we would get pregnant straightaway.We were like, "Okay ..."

[Martie Maguire] Yeah,but when Emily started having problems, I started thinkingit could happen to us.

[Martie Maguire] We knew there was a 30% chance of having twins.We went in and he did the sonogram and,just very nonchalant and calm, just goes,"Well, there's the heartbeat." And we were all excited.And then he moved it over and said, "And there's the other one."And Gareth and I just ... screamed.He said, "Don't scream, don't scream,"like I was gonna hurt the baby.

***

[Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, Martie Maguire] [Singing] It's so hard when it doesn't comeEasyIt's so hard when it doesn't come fastIt's so hard when it doesn't comeEasyIt's so hardWhoa ...

***

[Natalie Maines] Okay, how's she feeling?

[Martie Maguire] She's comfortable. She's had her epidural.And her contractions are moving, you know, slowly along.There's not much progression.There's not much going on.

[Natalie Maines] Does she want magazines?Does she had the "US Weekly" with Brad and Angelina?They're on.

[Heartbeats whooshing on sonogram]

[Martie Maguire] [Looking at Us magazine] Oh, there's you. I was like, God, that looks like Natalie."

[Charlie Robison, Emily's husband] I'd rather it go well in Iraqand then they be right ...

[Natalie Maines] No, I know that, but let's back upto "We should not be there."Of course, now that we're there -- yes, make the best of it.But we should not be there.It was still such lies and bullshit.

[Emily Robison] Oh ... Oh, two of 'em.What am I gonna do with two?Sore nipples are on the way. [Chuckles]

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] They didn't have you where I come from ...

[Natalie Maines] [Laughing]

[Martie Maguire] They are so beautiful.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] ... Never knew the best was yet to comeLife began when I saw your face ...

[Nurse] Say, "We squeezed before, we can squeeze again," right?

[Natalie Maines] ... And I hear your laugh like a serenadeHow long do you want to be loved?Is forever enough?'Cause I'm never never giving you upIs forever enough?'Cause I'm never never giving you up.

***

[Martie Maguire] I think now that we're making music again,I'd really be sadif this didn't have --if it didn't get heard ...

[Emily Robison] Didn't have an audience.

[Martie Maguire] if it didn't get heard ...and we couldn't continue our careers effortlessly as we have in the past.I mean, it's just been a way of life, part of our life.Emily and I started in a band when we were very young.I started when I was 12,and then she joined the band I was in when she was 10.And the Dixie Chicks started in 1989.I mean, this is more than just a job.This is a lifestyle. It's -- it's part of our lives.So I think -- just recentlyI've thought,"God, I just really hope we can get our career back on track.'Cause I need it."

***

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] I thought it was probably a good ideafor us to start talking aboutwhat a schedule might look like for the next couple of years.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] VH1 will -- VH1 will gladly air your videos.MTV's not your -- you're outside --you're too old for where MTV is at.

[Natalie Maines] [Mock crying] We're too old?

[All laughing]

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] You're just too old.

[Natalie Maines] Even if we get cool, we're too old already?

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] You're still too old already.

[Natalie Maines] Can't I -- can't I sort of lead them?I'm not old yet.

[Emily Robison] Hey, you're 30 now.You're in the same bracket.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] You're too old.

[Natalie Maines] Shit.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] To be honest with you, I'm not sure yetwhat method we're using to get music out there.I mean, the traditional --

[Martie Maguire] You don't want a singlebefore the end of the year?

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Well, the traditional method is --is you take a cut off the album and you service it to radio.Right? But we've got to assume right nowthat, you know, we're not dealing with the country format.

[Martie Maguire] I think you still let Sony do what they want there.

[Natalie Maines] I don't.

[Martie Maguire] We just aren't involved.

[Natalie Maines] I don't.Here's how it could go: You release the single;they play it; the campaign starts up again --"I'm never listening to your station";it plummets to "We want that"before our album comes out.

[Martie Maguire] I didn't mean for us to do anything for country. I just thought --

[Natalie Maines] I am just not willing to work country radiobecause I think it's gonna be a huge disaster.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] And we shouldn't.

[Martie Maguire] No, I don't think we should, either.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] But having said that, if country radio embraced itand turned around, and all of a suddenyou're sitting in number one on country radio,I think it would be crazy not to go back and go,"Hey, we're glad you like the new record."

[Martie Maguire] Okay, water under the bridge.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] So we're all gonna be friends again now.We're gonna have to deal with some more redneck bullshit.But I think it's at a point where you cannot go backand put yourself in the crosshairs.

***

2003

DIXIE CHICKS TONIGHT SOLD OUT

MAY

Greenville, South Carolina

[Woman] [Shouts] Be proud of your country. Be ashamed of the Dixie Chicks.

[Male Reporter] The controversy from the country music world has officially landed tonight.

[Female Reporter] The Dixie Chicks launched the U.S. legof their "Top of the World" tour in Greenville, South Carolina.

[Ignorant Woman Who Doesn't Know What the Hell She's Talking About] In my opinion, they're ignorant, and they don't know what the hell they're talking about.

The authors test the hypothesis that low-effort thought promotes political conservatism. In Study 1, alcohol intoxication was measured among bar patrons; as blood alcohol level increased, so did political conservatism (controlling for sex, education, and political identification). In Study 2, participants under cognitive load reported more conservative attitudes than their no-load counterparts. In Study 3, time pressure increased participants’ endorsement of conservative terms. In Study 4, participants considering political terms in a cursory manner endorsed conservative terms more than those asked to cogitate; an indicator of effortful thought (recognition memory) partially mediated the relationship between processing effort and conservatism. Together these data suggest that political conservatism may be a process consequence of low-effort thought; when effortful, deliberate thought is disengaged, endorsement of conservative ideology increases.

[Ignorant Man Who Is a Communist and a Traitor] If you support the Dixie Chicks, you're supporting Communism.You're supporting traitors

The Conservative syndrome describes a person who attaches particular importance to the respect of tradition, humility, devoutness and moderation (i.e., Traditional values) as well as to obedience, self-discipline and politeness (i.e., Conformist values), social order, family, and national security (Security values) and has a sense of belonging to and a pride in a group with which he or she identifies (In-group Collectivism). A Conservative person also subscribes to conventional religious beliefs (Alphaism) and accepts the mystical, including paranormal, experiences (Deltaism). The same person is likely to be less open to intellectual challenges (Openness) and will be seen as a responsible “good citizen” at work and in the society (Conscientiousness) while expressing rather harsh views toward those outside his or her group (Harshness Towards Outsiders).

Research shows that conservatives tend to modify facts to accommodate their beliefs and convictions, while liberals are more willing to deal with the complexity of multiple sources of information that help determine the true facts.

This is the opposite of ignoring facts, for in this case conservatives are inventing new ones. A prime example is the stubborn belief in supply-side, trickle-down economics, and in the supposed power of the free market, as summarized by Milton Friedman when he said, “The free market system distributes the fruits of economic progress among all people.”...

3. Display No Empathy for Others

Conservatives tend to blame poor people for their own misfortunes. Like when John Boehner voiced his perception of people without jobs: “This idea that has been born…I really don’t have to work; I don’t really want to do this. I think I’d rather just sit around.”

Almost all healthy adult Americans, of course, want to work. But in 2011 Senate Republicans killed a proposed $447 billion jobs bill that would have added about two million jobs to the economy. Members of Congress filibustered Nancy Pelosi’s “Prevention of Outsourcing Act,” even as two million jobs were being outsourced, and they temporarily blocked the “Small Business Jobs Act.” In April, 2013 only one member of Congress bothered to show up for a hearing on unemployment....

4. Shout Down Your Opponents

If nothing else works, belligerence will. Many of the top right-wingers use this strategy. John McCain told Code Pink protestors to “Get out of here, you low-life scum.” Michael Moore has reportedly received death threats from both Glenn Beck and Clint Eastwood. Bill O’Reilly bashed Mother Jones chief David Corn as a “liar” and an “irresponsible guttersnipe,” and then assailed New York Times’ Emily Steel in an interview about the Falklands controversy: “I am coming after you with everything I have. You can take it as a threat.”

[Man who is Anti-American and tiresomely pro-war] We're tired of the anti-American voices.We're tired of the antiwar voices.

The genocidal context of this class of violence and the fact that it is directed at a target that did not provoke the violence through its own actions has some definite implications for the psychological environment within which sanctioned massacres occur. It is an environment that seems almost totally devoid of those conditions that people usually see as providing at least some degree of moral justification for violence. Neither the reason for the violence nor its purpose is of the kind that people would normally consider justifiable....

I would like to discuss three interrelated processes that lead to the weakening of moral restraints against violence: authorization, routinization, and dehumanization. Through processes of authorization, the situation becomes so defined that standard moral principles do not apply and the individual is absolved of responsibility to make personal moral choices. Through processes of routinization, the action becomes so organized that there is no opportunity for raising moral questions and making moral decisions. Through processes of dehumanization, the actor's attitudes toward the target and toward himself become so structured that it is neither necessary nor possible for him to view the relationship in moral terms....

Violence is further legitimized by labeling processes that help to dissociate it from its true meaning. The more often we associate killing with honor, with justice, or with sport, the easier we find it to perceive massacres as acceptable and socially approved forms of conduct. Paradoxically, some of the highly selective official pronouncements against violence to which our national leaders occasionally resort only contribute to the perversion of language that helps to dissociate actions from their meaning. When the architects of mass violence in Indochina say (in criticizing Ghetto riots) that there is never an excuse for violence in our society, or (in decrying abortion) that it violates the sacredness of human life, they destroy the utility of these words as aids to moral judgment. People learn to look to official definitions of actions rather than to their human consequences in assessing their legitimacy.

Corrective efforts must take the form of constant challenges to the notion that human life is cheap, that killing or participation in killing is a socially acceptable and respectable activity, that violence is a normal and legitimate enterprise. These challenges must be raised at every point and every occasion in our social and political life at which such assumptions manifest themselves, because failure to challenge them creates the very conditions for their legitimization.

The glorification of violence receives some of its strongest reinforcement from the traditional image of the military as a unique noble and honorable enterprise. Within this tradition, killing of the enemy is elevated from the status of a necessary evil to that of a commendable good; productivity and proficiency in its performance are among the marks of the military hero. In the United States, this traditional adulation of the military has suffered some setbacks during the Vietnam War. The elaborately staged homecoming of our prisoners of war was aimed, among other things, at reviving popular enthusiasm for the military by casting these men in the traditional roles of returning heroes. The men deserve our fullest sympathy, respect, and support as human beings who have been subjected to extreme suffering and who have shown a high degree of personal courage. We must also remember, however, that most of these men were not only victims, but also victimizers -- active (and in some cases enthusiastic) participants in the massive bombardments of the people of Vietnam. To treat them as military heroes is to honor them in their roles as victimizers and thus to support our political and military authorities in their efforts to glorify mass violence.

At the other end of the political spectrum, some of the revolutionary rhetoric of recent years has made its own contribution to the glorification of violence (Arendt, 1969; also Kelman, 1968, Chapter 9). Terrorist acts have in some quarters been romanticized and their perpetrators elevated to the status of revolutionary heroes. A revolutionary mystique has evolved in which violence is not merely a means of struggle used as a last resort by oppressed people but a valued end in its own right. Some of the writings of Fanon (1963), in particular, are often cited as intellectual justification for the idea that violence on the part of oppressed people is in itself a vital part of the struggle, serving as a cleansing and creative force.

The glorification of violence among the rank and file -- whether in a military or a revolutionary context -- may well be a response to the dehumanizing experiences to which they themselves have been subjected. Both regimentation and oppression create a feeling of powerlessness, a loss of personal agency, a deprivation of the sense of identity. Violence can offer a person the illusion that he is in control, that he is able to act on his environment, that he has found a means of self-expression. It may be the only way left to him to regain some semblance of identity, to convince himself that he really exists. The sad irony is that violence is a response to dehumanization that only deepens the loss that it seeks to undo; it is an attempt to regain one's sense of identity by further destroying one's sense of community.

[Reporter] Tickets for the Dixie Chicks concert went on sale months ago.

[Girl 1 who would never have the guts to say anything brave] We did buy the tickets before they said these things.

[Girl 2 who would never have the guts to say anything brave] Before they said that!

[Girl 1 who would never have the guts to say anything brave] We couldn't get our money back, so that's why we're here.

[I'M ONLY HERE CUZ I COULDN'T GET MY $ BACK!!!]

[David Mattingly, Segment 7, Newsnight] But these South Carolina fans had no ideathat the show they were paying to see would end up becomingmuch more than a concert.

[Strom Thurmond Fan] I think we in South Carolina ought to say goodbye to the Dixie Chicks,and anybody that thinks about going to that concert ought to be ready, ready, ready, ready to run away from it.

[George Bush Twit] God bless GW!

[DIXIE TWITS WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION]

War, March 19, 2003:

Newspaper: "... disarray, it was still more advantageous to wait until after Labor Day to kick off their plan. 'From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August.' A centerpiece of the strategy, White House officials said, is to use Mr. Bush's speech on Sept. 11 to help move Americans toward support of action against Iraq, which could come ..."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "There is no doubt in my mind but that they currently have chemical and biological weapons."

President George Bush: "The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons."

Ari Fleischer: We know for a fact that there are weapons there."

President George Bush: "We found the weapons of mass destruction! Uh, you know, we found biological laboratories."

Secretary of State Colin Powell: "Everybody knows that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: "I have reason, every reason to believe, that the intelligence that we were operating off was correct."

Ari Fleischer: "No question we have said that Saddam Hussein possesses biological and chemical weapons."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "We know where they are. They are in the area around Takrit and Baghdad, and east, west, south and north."

Ari Fleischer: "A lot of this will be made clear in the course of the operation for whatever duration it takes."

Tim Russert, Meet the Press: "And are you confident that you'll also find weapons of mass destruction?"

Paul Bremer: "I believe we will find evidence of the programs of chemical and biological weapons, yes."

Tim Russert, Meet the Press: "How about the actual weapons?"

Paul Bremer: "Well, I just don't know. Let's wait and see what the teams ..."

Secretary of State Colin Powell: "Inspections continue with our new exploitation teams have been brought in.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: "Uh, and that we will in fact find weapons, or evidence of weapons programs, that are conclusive."

Hans Blix, Chief U.N. Weapons Inspector: "It is somewhat puzzling, I think, that you can have 100% certainty about the weapons of mass destruction's existence, and zero certainty about where they are."

Reporter: "Do you agree, and does it matter, whether or not you find these weapons?"

Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary: "This is a process that takes some time, and it will ebb and flow."

President Bush: "One thing we know is that he had a weapons program."

Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary: "I don't know anybody that I can think of who has contended that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons."

Vice-President Dick Cheney: "And we believe he has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons."

Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary: "But on the specific issue of weapons of mass destruction, it's going to take time, and we're going to have to be patient."

President George Bush: "Over time the truth will come out."

Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary: "Now, it's going to take time to find anything because they've had ..."

Secretary of State Colin Powell: "People will find that we presented a solid case, a case that is there, and it was there, and will remain there."

Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary: "So, it's going to take a period of time to find the people. I don't think we'll discover anything myself."

President George Bush: "I, I, I, I, I believe that we will find the truth, and the truth is he was developing a program for weapons of mass destruction."

Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary: "I think what will happen is we'll discover people who will tell us where to go find it."

Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary: "You're not going to find it simply in a house-to-house search. You're going to find it when people start to talk to you."

Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary: "It is not like a treasure hunt, where you just run around looking everywhere, hoping you find something. I just don't think that's going to happen. The inspectors didn't find anything, and I doubt that we will."

President George Bush: "Our people are going to find out the truth, and the truth will say that this intelligence was good intelligence. There's no doubt in my mind."

Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary: "What we will do is find the people who will tell us. There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact."

Reporter: "Is U.S. credibility on the line over 'weapons of mass destruction' in Iraq?"

[Reprehensible, Anti-American, Pro-War Man] When Natalie Maines made her comments on the eve of war,most of us recognized that was reprehensible.

What with the general fear of a war now being prepared by all nations and the specific fear of murderous ideologies, who can deny that we live in a state of terror? We live in terror because persuasion is no longer possible; because man has been wholly submerged in History; because he can no longer tap that part of his nature, as real as the historical part, which he recaptures in contemplating the beauty of nature and of human faces; because we live in a world of abstractions, of bureaus and machines, of absolute ideas and of crude messianism. We suffocate among people who think they are absolutely right, whether in their machines or in their ideas. And for all who can live only in an atmosphere of human dialogue and sociability, this silence is the end of the world.

To emerge from this terror, we must be able to reflect and to act accordingly. But an atmosphere of terror hardly encourages reflection. I believe, however, that instead of simply blaming everything on this fear, we should consider it as one of the basic factors in the situation, and try to do something about it. No task is more important. For it involves the fate of a considerable number of Europeans who, fed up with the lies and violence, deceived in their dearest hopes and repelled by the idea of killing their fellow men in order to convince them, likewise repudiate the idea of themselves being convinced that way. And yet such is the alternative that at present confronts so many of us in Europe who are not of any party -- or ill at ease in the party we have chosen -- who doubt socialism has been realised in Russia or liberalism in America, who grant to each side the right to affirm its truth but refuse it the right to impose it by murder, individual or collective. Among the powerful of today, these are the men without a kingdom. Their viewpoint will not be recognised (and I say 'recognised', not 'triumph'), nor will they recover their kingdom until they come to know precisely what they want and proclaim it directly and boldly enough to make their words a stimulus to action. And if an atmosphere of fear does not encourage accurate thinking, then they must first of all come to terms with fear.

To come to terms, one must understand what fear means: what it implies and what it rejects. It implies and rejects the same fact: a world where murder is legitimate, and where human life is considered trifling. This is the great political question of our times, and before dealing with other issues, one must take a position on it. Before anything can be done, two questions must be put: 'Do you, or do you not, directly or indirectly, want to be killed or assaulted? Do you or do you not, directly or indirectly, want to kill or assault?' All who say No to both these questions are automatically committed to a series of consequences which must modify their way of posing the problem.

[Bill O'Reilly, the most ignorant man of all, who deserves far more than a slapping] They don't know what they're talking about.

Amy Goodman talked about people in the world trade center and Jeremy Glick had lost his father in the world trade center and signed a petition against the war in Iraq. And that really made O’Reilly mad.

He said I want this kid in here. I want to talk to him. He had Jeremy Glick on, a Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers, and Jeremy was against the war. And he said that Bush had — he had funded the Mujahedin and those kinds of things, and O’Reilly got very angry and told him to "shut up!"

"Shut up!" Sound familiar?

And he turned off the kid’s mic., and that was the end of the interview. And then — this is on radio, right? He said, according to Glick, who told "Harper’s" and "Harper’s" — and O’Reilly hasn’t denied this, he told Jeremy, "Get the f out of here or I’ll f-ing tear you apart."

Now Terry Gross asked him about this and he said — O’Reilly said, "Did you read the transcript of the interview?"

She said, well, I read the "Harper’s" thing. "Yeah. Well, that’s what the elite media does. They didn’t have the whole transcript. They took it out of context. That’s what they do."

"You see, this kid — this kid said some outrageous things. He said Bush One and Bush Two orchestrated, Bush the elder and this president — had orchestrated 9-11."

"Well as a journalist, it was my duty to ask him if he had any proof and he didn’t, and that’s defamation!"

Well, I had written about this in my book and I knew — I read the transcript of that and Jeremy Glick never said anything of the sort.

So, here is a man, who’s got a lot of power, and he defames — he — Jeremy is a Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers, he makes his money by writing.

It’s hard to get a gig. He wrote me. He e-mailed me. He said it is kind of hard to get a gig when people think you’re a conspiracy nut.

Here is a guy, a powerful guy and he attacks a kid with no platform and the question is, what do we do about that?

Well, it’s why I wrote my book.

We have to —

We have to take what they say and expose it and use it against them. My job is to sort of do jujitsu.

When they lie, use it against them. Hold them up to scorn and ridicule. Because what they want us to do is to shut up! They want you to shut up! But don’t shut up!! Don’t shut up! Stand up! Stand up! And fight! Stand up and fight! Every one here, stand up and fight!

[Pat Buchanan, Nixon/Reagan Ditzy Twit, Dumbest Bastard] I think they are the Ditzy Twits. These are the dumbest, dumbest bimbos, with due respect, I have seen ...

And Applebome goes too far when he suggests that an even more reactionary strain of Southern thought -- "neo-Confederate" ideology -- has gone mainstream in America. It's true that the cult of the Lost Cause is resurgent in the South, albeit stripped of its once-blatant segregationism. It's also true there are close parallels between the "Contract With America" and the Confederate constitution, which not only enshrined states' rights but also included term limits, budget balancing, and limits on taxation. But when neo-Confederate ideology went national with the presidential candidacy of Pat Buchanan, who passionately defended displaying the rebel battle flag over the South Carolina statehouse, most Americans -- indeed, most South Carolinians -- found his retro-rebel views too extreme. To suggest, as Applebome does, that "it's hard to know these days where the Confederacy ends and the Republican Party begins," is to lump the GOP with some far-out folk, many of whom genuinely believe in black New World Order helicopters and the genetic inferiority of the black race.

Fundamentally, the United States Government has allied itself for decades with some of the darkest forces in history for the sake of economic gain, for political self-interest, for the protection of the status quo. And it continues to do so, domestically as well. That's why we have the likes of David Duke running for governor and the likes of Pat Buchanan running for President (in spite of having Klansmen on his staff). It's why everybody is talking about welfare queens and slamming the poor. It is also why the safest political platform of the decade is based on promises of "getting tough on crime." Their line is that it's okay to despise the poor, because they have it "too good" anyway. Besides, they claim, it's the poor, the minorities who are causing a rise in violent crime: "What we need is more executions. What we need to do is start chopping people's heads off ... " The level of political discourse in our country is anti-life. And the press is not innocent.

It was von Liebenfels's notorious magazine, Ostara, that so attracted Hitler in the latter's early days as an impoverished artist in Vienna, and we now know that Hitler -- so inflamed by the wild occult, racial, and anti-Semitic theories he found in Ostara -- actually paid an unannounced visit to the editor's offices and came face-to-face with Liebenfels himself. This information comes from an interview with von Liebenfels after the war, when he was struggling with the de-nazification process and would have had no ulterior motive in describing this meeting since the revelation of a personal relationship with Hitler could conceivably only hurt him.

If all one had to go on were back copies of Ostara, we would have to say that he was a cross between Pat Buchanan and Henry Lee Lucas, with a little Jimmy Swaggart thrown in to provide the Biblical and sexual references. Actually, von Liebenfels was a bit more complicated than that. His Order of the New Templars was an occult lodge that met at a ruined castle high on a cliff over the Danube -- the eerie Burg Werfenstein in Upper Austria, a few miles upriver from Hitler's childhood home -- among other sites. The members wore white, surplice-style robes emblazoned with the red cross of the Templars, a cross that von Liebenfels believed was formed of two, superimposed and counter-rotating, swastikas.

When it comes to the women I know, I think that their relative proximity to me is at the root of my dislike. We all four are white-passing, educated women within a few years of each other. We aren't too different in appearance. We share a number of interests and overlap significantly when it comes to hobbies and passions. It would make sense for a mutual acquaintance to blend us together into some sort of meta-person, conflate details about our lives. So why do I feel so immediately betrayed by the idea of someone might confuse me for one of them?

Because I am afraid of what people will think or do if they conflate us and our behavior. These women have been called more than casually racist and classist, sore loser or too overtly sexual and "socially inappropriate." I will survive if someone think after a casual perusal that I share these features and habits with them, right?

This is where I panic. Because as UCSB shooting proved to us, getting compared to and lumped in with other women is dangerous. Women are routinely assaulted and killed for refusing the attention or advances of men, the stories are far too numerous to ignore at this point. And for every success hard-won by women, there are voices shouting that women are the problem, that women are responsible for the violence done to them. In a true mindfuck, we can't even count on other women for protection; wealthy women often use slut-shaming to marginalize women of lower socioeconomic classes.

So I am afraid of "too overtly sexual" turning into "cock tease" turning into "she had it coming." I'm afraid of how other women's behavior reflects on me, not only with men that might do me damage because of it, but women who would, too.

I know it's more likely that any actual harm would be done to my reputation in small circles of people I don't care about than that I get physically hurt because of what another woman has done (or what someone thinks they've done), but the chances of physical harm are not zero. I don't know if that guy at Starbucks looking at me has both a nasty divorce and concealed carry under his belt. I don't know if the man touching himself under his coat while he stares at me on the train has just been thwarted by a third restraining order. And that's hyperbolic, I get it. But on top of the more pedestrian worries about casual entitlement to my body and my time, there are very real fears to be had about violence that become even more scary when every "what a bitch" when I say no is loaded with "just like all those other bitches" who say no. I am shouldering the weight of every other interaction that person had with a woman (especially a woman that looks like me) and that is a terrible burden to bear.

And many women I know work hard to avoid that weight. Friends I've lost because in their insistence on being "just one of the guys," they've put themselves and me in more danger. Hyperbole again? Not really. When I got pissed that a male friend of mine touched me without permission (hard enough to leave bruises) and reamed him for it, he stared at me for a second and said "But [mutual female friend] said it was cool." He thought he'd been granted permission by that one woman to treat all women as she allows (perhaps prefers) him to treat her. Every time a woman laughs at a poorly executed rape joke or allows her mass of male friends to use misogynist language or tries to discredit other women's objections to sexism, she is making a choice. I support her right to make that choice, but I want to remind her that there are consequences that result from her choices, harder to see and perhaps more insidious than she realizes.

In an attempt to distance myself from the risk of comparison to other women, I may now and then swing too far and become one of "those girls," the ones who dismiss and insult other women as "crazy" and "too full of drama." I may abandon women who would support and bolster me when I need them, who I can find sympathy and camaraderie with. I may walk away and chose to side with fear and oppression over people who have seen and felt and been many of the same things I have seen and felt and been, because in the short term it feels safer and more sure than the alternative.

Turns out I didn't need to do nearly as much soul searching as I thought. Rewatching Star Wars would have been a lot faster than working all this out on my own (though I sometimes find it hard to believe lessons taught by short green things that aren't Kermit). I fear what happens when people make assumptions about me based on the women around me. It makes me hate them, though it is a casual and unformed sort of dislike, easily fixed by antacids and a glass of wine.

I think now I'll start hating the people that make me fear, instead. They seem like they deserve it more.

[George W. Bush] I mean, the Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind.They can say what they want to say.And just because -- they shouldn't have their feelings hurt just becausesome people don't wanna buy their records when they speak out.I mean, you know, freedom is a two-way street.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] Mary Anne and Wanda were the best of friendsAll through their high school daysBoth members of the 4H ClubBoth active in the FFAAfter graduationMary Anne went outLooking for a bright new worldWanda looked all around this townAnd all she found was Earl.

[Female Reporter] Deafening cheers and a standing ovationgreeted the Dixie Chicks as they opened their first U.S. toursince Maines made her controversial comment.The down-home greeting came just as President Bushaddressed the nation aboard the USS Lincoln.

[PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED]

[President George Bush] America is gratefulfor a job well done.

[Crowd cheering]

[Natalie Maines] They said you might not come,but we knew you'd come.

[Crowd screaming and cheering]

[Natalie Maines] Because we have the greatest fansin the whole world.

[Crowd screaming and cheering]

[Natalie Maines] Oh wait, I hear some boos.We have a plan for this.If you're hearing a boo, we welcome that ...because we welcome freedom of speech.

[Crowd screaming and cheering]

[Natalie Maines] So we're gonna give you 15 secondsto get whatever you have out.So here we go, on the count of three,you can start your booing.One, two, three.

[Crowd massively cheering and whistling]

***

[Natalie Maines] [Jumps up and touches the top of the door frame]

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Ladies ...

[Natalie Maines] Was there boos at the very end?

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] ... that was fucking brilliant.

[Emily Robison] It was. It felt like ...

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Oh, it was brilliant.Oh, that was brilliant.I mean, all the media peopleare just like, "Oh --" I mean --

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] So being the pain in the assthat I am,yeah! We've gotta do a little radio thing now, so ...

[Gareth Maguire, Martie's husband] Aw, come on!

[Deejay] But what made it touch was it wasn't your normal call,you know, "I wish you wouldn't play that song," or "I don't really like what you did."It was, "I will never listen to you again.I will drive to the station. I will," you knowshort of threats, to us,it was like, "I will never listen again." That was just weird.

[Natalie Maines] We have this audience,and we wave that country flag all the time,defend country music,and in an instant,they turned their backs on us.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] No, I mean, you being the biggest ambassadors for country radio.

[Deejay] No bullshit, how do you all feel about country radio?

[Natalie Maines] The people who abandoned us,I'll never talk to them again.And the people who've supported us are gonnaget more love than they've ever seen.

[Everyone hooting and hollering]

***

[Emily Robison] Can you say, "Hi"? Say "Aghhh!"Sneak attack!

[Natalie Maines] Aggh! You scared me.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] Every step of the wayWe walk the lineYour days are numbered, so are mine ...

[GOT FREE SPEECH]

[FREE SPEECH RULES!]

[LET FREEDOM OF SPEECH SING]

[Another very ignorant American man] Freedom of speech is fine, but by God, you don't do it outsideof the country, and you don't do it in mass public place.

[I'M ASHAMED THE DIXIE CHICKS PLAY BLUEGRASS]

[Man Who Should Move to Russia 'Cause He Doesn't Like Free Speech] "Being ashamed of our President means being ashamed of our country.Move to France, Dixie Chicks."

In talking about the influence a mother has on her daughter, we also have to talk about social learning theory. Social learning theory reminds us that modeling has much to do with how children learn. The real but graphic truth is that there are many mothers out there in the world who aren't so sweet to their daughters, and readily say and do things that would make many of us cringe. It's critical to note that much of what is said and done by mothers that is ultimately hurtful was engaged under the veiled intention of having 'her best interests in mind.' I have found that women who are mean-spirited about other women were often raised by a mother who probably didn't like herself and didn't feel warmly toward women, in general, either.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] The city's just a jungle, more games to playI'm trapped in the heart of itTrying to get away, I was raised in the country ...

***

[Natalie Maines] Did Simon tell you all the American Red Crosswouldn't take a million dollars from us?

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Well, you do know that George W. Bushis the honorary chairman.

During the Sandy disaster, some government officials came to resent the Red Cross.

When the storm hit, officials in Bergen County, New Jersey activated their Emergency Operations Center. In keeping with a carefully established plan, representatives from government agencies and charities gather there to coordinate, share information and respond to crises 24 hours a day.

A seat was reserved for the Red Cross, the most important nongovernment responder. But the Red Cross’ seat remained empty for the full duration of the Sandy response.

“They were the only major player not there,” says police lieutenant Matthew Tiedemann, who helped run Bergen County’s response to Sandy. County officials had no easy way to get in touch with Red Cross leadership to tell them about areas of need on the ground, he says.

[Martie Maguire] This whole week they didn't play us.This whole week they didn't play us.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] That's one song.No one boycotted you.

[Emily Robison] This is a boycott.

[Natalie Maines] That one did.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] That is not a boycott.

[Natalie Maines] How, how is it not a boycott? They haven't been playing our music for a few weeks.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] A boycott is when someone says, "We are not playing --"

[Emily Robison] Simon, actions speak louder than words.

[Martie Maguire] What's the difference? You tell me the difference.

***

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] So I'll see you aroundI got here ...

[Girl Fan] All I know is all these radio stations, they pretend to support 'em,but they won't play 'em. We call and ask, and they won't.

[Clayton Allen, program director, kj97 San Antonio] No other artist that we play on the radiowould get the kind of hate mail and complaint calls,and "I'm never listening to you again. I'm never doing business with you again."No one gets that. I could probably put Marilyn Manson on the radio stationand not get that kind of negative feedback,even though we're a country station.

***

[Martie Maguire] These people haven't quote "boycotted" us,but they haven't been playing our songand are partially responsible for our number-one single to plummet.

[Paul Beane, general manager krbl lubbock, Rapeutationist] Until the mood of our audience changes,we're not going to play them anymore.It'd simply be financial suicide.

[Misogynistic Pig] Keep playing, keep making music.

[Misogynistic Pig's brainwashed woman] And keep your mouth shut!

4. Mean Girls

These are the women who try to bond by putting other women (outside of the group) down, aka gossip. They are judgmental, critical, and/or cold. If she’ll do it to them, she’ll do it to you, so watch out! The most critical people are often the people who have been the most criticized. Take pity on her, but don’t get too close, she bites!

[Martie Maguire] All these people in this huge arena, and I thought, are we ever gonna beat this level again?It made me so sad. I thought,"Is this the top,you know, and everything's downhill from here?"

***

[Randy Carroll, Advocate for the 1%] Today's country, KJ97. Good morning.It's Randy Carroll and Pam Tyler. It's 8:54.Their career is a lot biggerthan the country music core.Now as a radio station,we can't afford to lose the country music core.As entertainers, they obviously feel like they can,and I think that's probably the thingthat bugs me the most about the whole thing --not so much what they say,but in the things that they've said. And several different things,not just the comment about the President,but some of the things that they said about Toby Keith's musicand about him and people that believe that wayshows a real contemptfor what a whole lotof country-music listeners believe.

Don't Forget 2 Hate!, by Tara Carreon

[Reporter] I just have a quick question regarding things that have been happeningwith Toby Keith lately. He was in town a couple of weeks agowith a little bit of a video poking fun at you.What are your thoughts on that? Is it all just in fun,or is there any seriousness to what's going on?

[Natalie Maines] Oh, it's not in fun for me. [Laughs]I don't appreciate what he does in his showwith my picture, and he has not been banned for that.

[SADDAM HUSSEIN & NATALIE MAINES: DIXIE DUO: SONGS OF PEACE & LOVE]

[Toby Keith] [Singing] You'll be sorry that you messed withthe US of A

[Crowd cheering and hollering]

2. Interactive Military Games Target Teenagers

Military recruiters’ ability to affect young people is greatly enhanced by captivating images shown in the various promotional materials that they bring to schools, including brochures, DVDs, videos, and electronic games. Often the military prominently displays its promotional materials inside or nearby the school cafeteria, where the entire student population can be exposed to the recruiters’ messages.

The Army employs a range of techniques to entice potential recruits. It developed its own video game, “America’s Army,” which is available for free download at the Army’s recruiting website. The game has 6.5 million registered users according to the Army’s website. “America’s Army,” which has “become the gold standard for recruitment video games, cost $5.5 Million.” The Army also plans to use cell phone text messages, helicopter simulators in the back of eighteen wheelers, and visits to NASCAR and rodeo races. “[R]ecruiters will visit schools and malls a few days before an event, offering free tickets and the chance to meet famous drivers or bull riders.”

At one location, the Army displays customized vehicles and a black Hummer with an Army logo and “a high-end audiovisual system.” Two “flat-screen monitors” show Army footage from Iraq to the accompaniment of the Toby Keith song “American Soldier,” while a third monitor “displays images from an Xbox video game.” A road show attraction includes an aviation van with a new Special Forces vehicle, “which includes a simulated parachute drop.”

[Toby Keith] [Singing] 'Cause we'll put a boot in your assIt's the American way ...

'What are the stars?' said O'Brien indifferently. 'They are bits of fire a few kilometres away. We could reach them if we wanted to. Or we could blot them out. The earth is the centre of the universe. The sun and the stars go round it.'

Winston made another convulsive movement. This time he did not say anything. O'Brien continued as though answering a spoken objection:

'For certain purposes, of course, that is not true. When we navigate the ocean, or when we predict an eclipse, we often find it convenient to assume that the earth goes round the sun and that the stars are millions upon millions of kilometres away. But what of it? Do you suppose it is beyond us to produce a dual system of astronomy? The stars can be near or distant, according as we need them. Do you suppose our mathematicians are unequal to that? Have you forgotten doublethink?'

Winston shrank back upon the bed. Whatever he said, the swift answer crushed him like a bludgeon. And yet he knew, he knew, that he was in the right. The belief that nothing exists outside your own mind -- surely there must be some way of demonstrating that it was false? Had it not been exposed long ago as a fallacy? There was even a name for it, which he had forgotten. A faint smile twitched the corners of O'Brien's mouth as he looked down at him.

'I told you, Winston,' he said, 'that metaphysics is not your strong point. The word you are trying to think of is solipsism. But you are mistaken. This is not solipsism. Collective solipsism, if you like. But that is a different thing: in fact, the opposite thing. All this is a digression,' he added in a different tone. 'The real power, the power we have to fight for night and day, is not power over things, but over men.' He paused, and for a moment assumed again his air of a schoolmaster questioning a promising pupil: 'How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?'

Winston thought. 'By making him suffer,' he said.

'Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery is torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always -- do not forget this, Winston -- always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever.'

He paused as though he expected Winston to speak. Winston had tried to shrink back into the surface of the bed again. He could not say anything. His heart seemed to be frozen. O'Brien went on:

'And remember that it is for ever. The face will always be there to be stamped upon. The heretic, the enemy of society, will always be there, so that he can be defeated and humiliated over again. Everything that you have undergone since you have been in our hands -- all that will continue, and worse. The espionage, the betrayals, the arrests, the tortures, the executions, the disappearances will never cease. It will be a world of terror as much as a world of triumph. The more the Party is powerful, the less it will be tolerant: the weaker the opposition, the tighter the despotism. Goldstein and his heresies will live for ever. Every day, at every moment, they will be defeated, discredited, ridiculed, spat upon and yet they will always survive. This drama that I have played out with you during seven years will be played out over and over again generation after generation, always in subtler forms. Always we shall have the heretic here at our mercy, screaming with pain, broken up, contemptible -- and in the end utterly penitent, saved from himself, crawling to our feet of his own accord. That is the world that we are preparing, Winston. A world of victory after victory, triumph after triumph after triumph: an endless pressing, pressing, pressing upon the nerve of power. You are beginning, I can see, to realize what that world will be like. But in the end you will do more than understand it. You will accept it, welcome it, become part of it.'

Winston had recovered himself sufficiently to speak. 'You can't!' he said weakly.

'What do you mean by that remark, Winston?'

'You could not create such a world as you have just described. It is a dream. It is impossible.'

'Why?'

'It is impossible to found a civilization on fear and hatred and cruelty. It would never endure.'

'Why not?'

'It would have no vitality. It would disintegrate. It would commit suicide.'

'Nonsense. You are under the impression that hatred is more exhausting than love. Why should it be? And if it were, what difference would that make? Suppose that we choose to wear ourselves out faster. Suppose that we quicken the tempo of human life till men are senile at thirty. Still what difference would it make? Can you not understand that the death of the individual is not death? The party is immortal.'

[Bill Maher] You have had kind of a famous feud,and does it bother you that you are sometimes linkedwith this simple-minded redneck?And by that I mean George Bush.

[All laughing]

[Emily Robison] You're getting us in a lot of trouble, Bill.

[Natalie Maines] I don't think we can get in more.

[Bill Maher] What is the status of that feud?

[Voice of Ignorant Not-A-Songwriter Toby Keith] She can say my song is ignorant and it's ignorant for her to say that, because she's not a songwriter. She said anybody can write boot in your ass, but she didn't.

We may conclude that, indeed, Conservatism at the individual level and Broad Conservatism at the country level are related to low performance on cognitive ability tests. These tests are used for the assessment of IQ. There is no assumption about the direction of causality in our findings. One is free to speculate, for example, that Conservatism causes low IQ. Alternatively, the two assumptions mentioned in the Introduction are equally plausible. Thus, in accordance with Jost et al. (2003) theory of motivated cognition, less able people cannot see many complexities of the situation and are therefore threatened by a larger number of events in the environment, becoming more conservative in the process. Or, one can postulate a third cause, common to both IQ and Conservatism that may be in operation. At the individual level, this may be rigidity. At the country level, this may be fundamentalism. At both levels it may be the lack of formal education or, indeed, a common source of covariation between IQ, Conservatism, measures of Failed States Index, wealth, the rule of law, democracy, freedom, and potentially a host of other variables.

[Natalie Maines] [Pointing to her shirt] Fans United Together in Kindness.[winks]

***

[Pam Tyler, Self-Hating Woman and Sayer of Stupid Things] Personally, I wish they would just shut up and sing.About the time things start dying down,somebody else says something stupidand gets everybody all riled up again.

Research suggests that conservatives are, on average, more susceptible to fear than those who identify themselves as liberals. Looking at MRIs of a large sample of young adults last year, researchers at University College London discovered that “greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala” ($$). The amygdala is an ancient brain structure that's activated during states of fear and anxiety. (The researchers also found that “greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex” – a region in the brain that is believed to help people manage complexity.)

That has implications for our political world. In a recent interview, Chris Mooney, author of The Republican Brain, explained, “The amygdala plays the same role in every species that has an amygdala. It basically takes over to save your life. It does other things too, but in a situation of threat, you cease to process information rationally and you're moving automatically to protect yourself.”

The finding also fits with other data. Mooney discusses studies conducted at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in which self-identified liberals and conservatives were shown images – apolitical images – that were intended to elicit different emotions. Writing at Huffington Post, Mooney explains that “there were images that caused fear and disgust -- a spider crawling on a person's face, maggots in an open wound -- but also images that made you feel happy: a smiling child, a bunny rabbit.” The researchers noted two differences between the groups. The researchers studied their subjects' reactions by tracking their eye movements and monitoring their “skin conductivity” – a measure of one's autonomic nervous system's reaction to stimuli.

Conservatives showed much stronger skin responses to negative images, compared with the positive ones. Liberals showed the opposite. And when the scientists turned to studying eye gaze or "attentional" patterns, they found that conservatives looked much more quickly at negative or threatening images, and [then] spent more time fixating on them.

Mooney concludes that this “new research suggests [that] conservatism is largely a defensive ideology -- and therefore, much more appealing to people who go through life sensitive and highly attuned to aversive or threatening aspects of their environments.”

[Natalie Maines] You see that person shaking their sign with so much energythat said "FUDC"?

[Emily Robison] Yeah.You should have said --

[Natalie Maines] I almost said --

[Emily Robison] You should have said, "Hey, that's not nice of you, crowd."

[Natalie Maines] -- "We love you all's signs, but what do you have against Dick Cheney?"

[All laugh]

***

[SENATE COMMITTEE HEARINGS: RADIO OWNERSHIP. C-SPAN]

[John McCain] The Committee continues its series of hearingsexamining media ownership by returning to the topicthat started it all -- radio.

[Simon Renshaw, Recording Artists' Coalition] As a result of statements madeby members of the Dixie Chicks at a concert,two radio networks -- Cox and Cumulus -- banned the Dixie Chicks from their playlist at a chain level.

[Lewis Dickey, Cumulus Broadcasting President & CEO] Mr. Chairman, first of all, Mr. Renshaw refers to our radio companies as networksand we are not networks.We are a confederation of 270 individual stations in 55 cities --

[John McCain] You made a decision from corporate headquartersthat was binding on -- on your DJs.

[Lewis Dickey, Cumulus Broadcasting President & CEO] Mr. Chairman --

[John McCain] And just prior to that,you say that you're a group of independent radio stations.See, that's a total contradiction, Mr. Dickey.

[Lewis Dickey, Cumulus Broadcasting President & CEO] I think that mischaracterizes it. As I mentioned,this was a collaborative decision-making process.Everybody fell in line. This was not --this was a unanimous overwhelming decision.

[John McCain] "Fell in line," I understand this.

[Sen. Barbara Boxer] Do you think what you did sent any type of a chilling messageto people that they oughta shut up ...and not express their views one way or other?

[Senator] Mr. Renshaw, do you think that program directorsever have the right to select the programmingbased on the actions, activitiesor public statements of the entertainers?

[Simon Renshaw, Recording Artists' Coalition] I believe that they have the right to make the decisionsabout whether they do play something or they don't play something.But I think that what we were seeing that was going on at the timewas people were making decisionsin a politically-censuring mode, despite what everyone says.

[Natalie Maines] Not very many managers would be so brave.

[Simon Renshaw, Recording Artists' Coalition] They had -- they had unwittingly entered into the world of politics.

SHUT UP AND ACT!

[George Clooney decapitated]

[Janeane Garofolo's head blown off]

[Susan Sarandon splat on the pavement]

[Sean Penn killed by a giant cat]

[Danny Glover killed by a giant cat]

[Helen Hunt cut in half]

[Samuel Jackson decapitated]

[Tim Robbins burned to death]

[Alec Baldwin decapitated]

-- Team America, directed by Trey Parker, Creator of South Park

[Senator Gordon Smith] It just seems to me that when people get into politics,even if they're entertainers, it has consequences.She made a decision, politically, to speak.It had a business consequence to her.And I think entertainers, increasingly after this conflict, are now recognizing that their involvement in politicsdoes have a political fallout in terms of business to them.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Well, "Whether you like it or not is gonna be irrelevant,but we'll see you in a couple of years with something."

[Natalie Maines] Maybe.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] You may never make another record?

[Natalie Maines] It may not be a country record.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Oh, I know that.It works.

[Natalie Maines] It could be.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] I'm assuming that it -- that --I'm assuming there will be another record at some point. All right.

[Natalie Maines] Yeah, but they're not -- anyway, we can argue about itin two years.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Yes, oh yeah.

***

2005

LOS ANGELES

[Martie Maguire] [Playing fiddle]

[Chris Testa, Recording Mixer] Here we go.

[Martie Maguire] I'm probably totally outnumbered,but I think this is a country record in a lot of ways.Knowing country through and throughbecause that's what I listened to, you know, most of my life,I don't think this is that far ...

[Chris Testa, Recording Mixer] I don't think so.

[Martie Maguire] ... from country.

[Chris Testa, Recording Mixer] There are songs like "Lubbock" where it's hardly kind of country,but it's kind of like -- I don't know,I really haven't heard a band that sounds like that.

[Martie Maguire] The last thing I wanted to do was for Rick to come inand say, "Okay, we're making a rock record."That would've scared the crap out of me.He hears something different, Natalie hears something different,Emily hears something different, and I hear something different,but to me, this is reminiscent of the country I grew up onwhich is why I love it.

***

[Country music playing]

SAN ANTONIO

[Emily Robison] I feel like I just decompressthe second I go through the gate.It's just like I can just relax, you know?Being on the road's one thing, but L.A. is a whole other thing.It's just not my cup of tea.

***

[CHARLIE ROBISON, musician/rancher]

[Music: Now I got myself a little bandAnd we're pretty good, I guessBut I never learned how ...

[Charlie Robison, musician/rancher] I don't understand how people can livein a place like Los Angeles.When I'm out there visiting her, I'm just pissed off the whole time.

[Emily Robison] He is -- he's literally pissed off the whole time. I'm like, "Go home."I've always been able to separate work and familyand I've never had to do that as long as I have this timewith this project, you know? I've never had to relocate.

[Charlie Robison, musician/rancher] [Sighs] It was a hard year. You know, being split up like that,especially, you know -- with our son being two and a half.

[Emily Robison] Yeah, he'd get to fly back and be with Dad for a week,but for a two-and-a-half-year-old to conceptualize,"Why aren't you together?" That was really hard.

[Gussie] [Laughs] Hey, Mommy. [Sprays his mom with the hose]

[Emily Robison] [Screams and laughs] Stop!

[Gussie] [Sprays dad with the hose]

[All laughing]

[Emily Robison] He's pretty good.

[Charlie Robison, musician/rancher] Gimme.

[Gussie] Got him!

[Charlie Robison, musician/rancher] Shoot.

***

AUSTIN

[Playing harmonica]

[Playing flute]

[Martie Maguire] Dance in circles, do your hands --

[Gareth Maguire, Martie's husband] Where's jazz hands?

[Martie Maguire] I don't know too many women who get to bringtheir husband and two children to work.

[To her daughter] [Laughing]Yummy yummy?I'm so lucky. My husband travels everywhere with me.He's like a Mr. Mom and he loves being a dadand travels on every tour.

[Gareth Maguire, actor/Martie's husband] I love being there for herwhen she comes in in the evening from the studio.You know, the babies are there and I'm there.Dinner's on the table -- sometimes.And uh, you know, it's -- it's good.It really is, it's great.And no matter where we are, as long as we're together, I feel like we're home.

***

LOS ANGELES

[Doll head] [cackling] Happy Halloween.

[Beckett Finn Pasdar] I don't want it, I don't want it.

[Adrian Pasdar, Actor/Natalie's husband] We'll do it loose.

[Beckett Finn Pasdar] Huh-uh, huh-uh.

[Adrian Pasdar, Actor/Natalie's husband] Do it. Watch.If you don't like it, we'll take it off.Trust me, man. I have to wear one all the time.You know, Daddy plays lawyers. It's all I do.Look at me -- do I look like a lawyer?It's the tie -- it fools everyone.

[Adrian Pasdar, Actor/Natalie's husband] Hey, you know what, buddy?I don't blame you. Ties suck.Who wants to tie a noose around their neck?This is basically like this.So in corporate America you go,"Come on. Let's go. Come on.Come on, come on. Another couple hundred million dollars.Come on, come on." This is how they walk around the halls at Exxon.Just like this. Come on, let's go. Come on, chop-chop.Okay, so I don't blame you.You don't have to wear it.

***

[Martie Maguire] What else do we need?

[Gareth Maguire, actor/Martie's husband] Oh!

[Wolf whistles to his daughter] You're beautiful.Look at Kathleen.

[Martie Maguire] Beautiful. I think we're ready.

***

[Skeleton] [Laughing]

[Woman] Happy Halloween!

[Natalie Maines] Hey, you ready, Harry?This.

[Beckett Finn Pasdar] Mama, look, a graveyard.

[Natalie Maines] I know. [Pointing to a George Bush masked guy] Look at that scary guy.

[Kids laughing]

[Gareth Maguire, actor/Martie's husband] Where is Kathleen?

[Martie Maguire] Ta-dah!

[Twins] [Dah!]

***

[Martie Maguire] I feel like I've aged five yearssince I had my twins.I just look in the mirror and think I look so old,and the other morning I was so tired.When you're just so tired, you'd give anything not to have to get up.

[Natalie Maines] I offered Adrian a thousand bucks to get up once, and he didn't do it.

[Emily Robison] [Laughing] A thousand ...

[Natalie Maines] I was like, "I'll give you $1,000."I was so serious.

[Emily Robison] What does that mean to the person you're married to, though?

[Natalie Maines] What's it mean that he didn't get up?

[Martie Maguire] In our world, okay, we give you a blowjob.

[Emily Robison] "All right, you have to give me a blowjob." I was like, "No, I'll do it."

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] We need to find a way of introducing peopleto the new sound on the new album, and I think we go outand we do four shows.I think we should go and play in L.A.,New York, Chicago and Austin.

[Emily Robison] It would be more industry?

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] It would be more industry, fans.

[Natalie Maines] That's too soon, Simon.And especially for industry people, I don't think our first time performingthese songs need to be in front of industry peoplewhile we're still feeling out how we are gonna --

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] How are we gonna do that?

[Natalie Maines] -- move and look.

[Emily Robison] If you want it to be really good, all we have to do is start early enoughto make it good, so I don't understand what your problem is.

[Natalie Maines] I don't think we're being cautious enough.I think it should be very calculated.I feel like we're treating this like every other record,and we all agreed that that is not the waythis needed to be treated. It scares me.There's a lot of people out there who already have their minds made up.It doesn't matter.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] What's that gotta do --

[Natalie Maines] We have never gone into a record being judged the waywe are gonna be judged this time. Never.

Many readers are by now spluttering with indignation. We can hear them expostulating: “The official version of 9/11 is a myth and a lie!” – followed by a string of obscenities worthy of Dick Cheney. But think for a minute: if you think you know all about 9/11, how do you know what you think you know?

The first identification of Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda as the perpetrators came during the day on September 11, as various commentators and announcers for cable, broadcast, and public television began floating the charge that Bin Laden and al Qaeda were behind the attacks. Apparently CNN was the first to mention Bin Laden, and the other myth-mongers immediately followed its lead. In retrospect, we know that many of these leaks came from two important functionaries in the Washington bureaucracy. These were George Tenet, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, who should have been fired that same day, but who was allowed to resign in disgrace in June 2004, on the eve of the publication of a Senate Intelligence Committee report which pilloried him and his agency for gross incompetence. This was the same Tenet who later assured Bush that the case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as a pretext for a US invasion was a “slam dunk.” The other prime myth-monger was Richard A. Clarke, the former terror czar of the Clinton administration who had been kept on by Bush. Clarke had a long history, of which many of his gulled victims at those hearings were unaware. He had been dropped from the State Department by James Baker III because he was accused of concealing Israeli exports of US military technology to the People’s Republic of China which were banned under US law, and which the Israelis had agreed in advance not to carry out. In some quarters, Richard Clarke’s name was mentioned at the time of the hunt for MEGA, the Israeli mole thought to be operating in the White House. Clarke is a close friend of Israeli defense officials, among them David Ivry of the Israeli Defense Ministry.

As Clarke recounts in his recently published memoir: “At the outset of the first Gulf War, Ivry and I conspired to get our governments to agree to deploy a US Army Patriot unit in Israel. No foreign troops had ever been stationed before in Israel. We also worked together to sell Patriots to Israel, and to tie in the Kiriat [the Israeli Pentagon] with American satellites that detected Iraqi Scud missile launches towards Israel. After the war, the CIA circulated unfounded rumors that Israel had sold some of the Patriots to China. Many in the State Department who thought I was ‘too close to Israel’ sought to blame me.” (Clarke 46) Clarke was a protégé of Arnold L. Raphael (killed in the same plane crash with Gen. Zia of Pakistan), and worked closely with Morton Abramowitz.

On the morning of Sept. 11, as the White House was being evacuated for fear that it could be hit after the strikes against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the first top official to say “This is Al Qaeda!” had been Richard Clarke. (New York Times, December 30, 2001). When Clarke arrived at the White House a little after 9 AM on 9/11, he found Cheney and Condoleezza Rice alone in Cheney’s office. “What do you think,” asked the horrified Cheney. Clarke’s immediate reply: “It’s an al Qaeda attack and they like simultaneous attacks. This may not be over.” (Clarke 2) This is the moment of conception of the 9/11 myth. At this moment Clarke, as a New Yorker would say, didn’t know from nothing. Had he ever heard of strategic deception? Had he ever heard of diversionary tactics? Had he ever heard of feints?

Clarke tells us in his memoir that he attempted to collect his thoughts about the events going on around him as he walked from the White House Secure Videoconferencing Center just off the Situation Room across the White House to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, which was Cheney’s underground bunker:

In the quiet of the walk, I caught my breath for the first time that day: This was the “Big al Qaeda Attack” we had warned was coming and it was bigger than almost anything we had imagined, short of a nuclear weapon. (Clarke 17)

This is already one of the most fateful snap judgments in world history. Had Clarke utterly forgotten the lessons of Oklahoma City, when leakers had inspired the report that the explosion was the work of Moslems? Clarke had no proof then, and has come forward with none since.

Rushing to overtake Clarke as the leading hipshot in snap strategic diagnosis was CIA Director Tenet. While Bush was cowering in his spider hole at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, he conducted a National Security Council meeting by means of teleconference screens. “Who do you think did this to us?” Bush asked Tenet. Tenet was emphatic: “Sir, I believe it’s al Qaeda. We’re doing the assessment, but it looks like, it feels like, it smells like Al Qaeda.” (Bamford 2004 91) In other words, Tenet also had no proof, no evidence, no case – just his crude Lockean sense certainty.

Later, after World Trade Center 7 had gone through its inexplicable and embarrassing collapse at about 5:20 PM, Clarke addressed a high-level interagency meeting from the Situation Room. Present by video link were Armitage of State, General Meyers of the JCS, and other important officials. Clarke stated: “Okay, we all know this was al Qaeda. FBI and CIA will develop the case and see if I’m right. We want the truth but, in the meantime, let’s go with the assumption it’s al Qaeda. What’s next.?” (Clarke 23) Before he went to bed in the White House, Bush jotted a note to himself: “The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today. We think it’s Osama Bin Laden.” (Bamford 2004 92)

Given the fecklessness of Bush, Cheney, and Rice, Richard Clarke was running the US government on 9/11, and it was he who made the myth of the exclusive responsibility of al Qaeda/Bin Laden into the official policy of the US. Clarke can thus claim pride of place as the originator of the 9/11 myth. And Clarke was more than a mythograph. Clarke also shared in the responsibility for the bungling and stupid attack on an aspirin factory in Khartoum, Sudan, after the bombing of US embassies in east Africa in the summer of 1998. If there were an Oscar for deception, Clarke’s performance at the Kean-Hamilton Commission hearings in April 2004 would have won it. It was that virtuoso performance which launched Clarke on his current career as a television commentator predicting imminent WMD terrorist attacks on this country and advocating the speedy imposition of martial law. We will hear more about this gentleman later. All we need to note right now is that anyone would be foolish to buy a used car from Clarke or Tenet.

Another early official fingering of Osama Bin Laden as the guilty party came from Secretary of State Colin Powell on September 13. At this point Powell was competing for attention with the fulminations and Schrecklichkeit of neocons like Wolfowitz, who was ranting that the US would “end states harboring terrorism,” and would do so unilaterally, without reference to the collective security of the United Nations. Already voices of caution were being raised about another ill-prepared rush to judgment. Professor Paul Rogers, of Bradford University's peace department, warned against assuming Middle East extremists were behind the tragedy. “We've been here before. With Oklahoma, everybody assumed it was Middle East [terrorists], then it turned out to be home-grown Timothy McVeigh,” he said. “Again with the pipe bomb in Atlanta, it turned out to be domestic.” (Guardian, September 11, 2001) In any event, this was the same Colin Powell, who in February 2003, before the United Nations Security Council, perjured himself on the question of Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. This was the same Colin Powell who alleged mobile biological weapons labs, chemical weapons dispensers, and tubes being used for centrifuges in the process of uranium enrichment. This was the same Colin Powell who committed the most spectacular perjury in the history of the United Nations Security Council.

On September 14, the FBI, which had known nothing about anything before the attacks, published its infamous list of nineteen hijackers. As we will soon see, the mortality rate among those supposed kamikazes was less than 100%, with no less than seven of the suspects named turning up alive and well in the days after this list was published. More importantly, this was a list prepared by the same FBI which had been responsible for the Waco massacre of men, women, and children in 1992, the agency that illegally withheld documents in the capital murder trial of Timothy McVeigh, an abuse which ought to have caused his conviction to be thrown out, but which only caused it to be delayed. This is the agency whose vaunted Crime Lab turned out to be a sewer of incompetence and corruption. This is the same FBI which clumsily attempted to entrap and frame up the innocent Richard Jewel during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games, while the real culprit went free. This is the same FBI which persecuted the Chinese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee without any grounds, accusing him of having transferred secrets to the People’s Republic of China. This is the same FBI which permitted the Soviet mole Robert Hanssen to operate inside it for fifteen years.

4) Opus Dei

While FBI agent Robert Hanssen brought the Catholic organization Opus Dei to the prominence when he was caught spying for Russia, it is once again in the spotlight thanks to the best-selling book The Da Vinci Code. And while the group's secrecy appeals to some ("I think they really fly under everybody's radar screen and that they're a lot more powerful than a lot of people think," Rev. James Martin, associate editor of America magazine explained. [ABC News]) and its attitude towards pain and suffering appeals to others ("After I joined, they gave me a barbed-wire chain to wear on my leg for two hours a day and a whip to hit my buttocks with," former Opus Dei member Sharon Clasen said. [Chicago Tribune]) in April, 2001, The American Catholic co-editor Catharine A. Henningsen revealed why this highly secretive group might be of concern to average Joes:

"Immediately following that revelation [that Hanssen was a member of Opus Dei] stories began to surface in the press claiming that FBI Director, Louis Freeh and Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas are also Opus Dei members. Opus Dei denies that Freeh, Scalia and Thomas are members, though Freeh sends his son to the Opus Dei School, The Heights, and Scalia's wife is reported to regularly attend Opus Dei functions. Robert Hanssen, Justice Scalia and Louis Freeh also all worship at St. Catherine of Siena parish in Great Falls, Virginia, where the Tridentine Latin Mass is offered, rather than the new order of the Mass declared by Paul VI." [The American Catholic]

"Whether or not an alleged member of Opus Dei, like Justice Antonin Scalia, enjoys a touch of the lash on his prodigious derriere from time to time, is certainly no business of ours," Mike Whitney wrote. "However, the affiliation of a Justice on the highest court in the land to an organization that, for all appearances, is nothing more than a right-wing cult should arouse not only suspicion, but an investigation." [CounterPunch.org]

Scalia's alleged membership notwithstanding, the fact that a mere three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to take up the vice president's appeal in lawsuits concerning the administration's energy task force, Scalia traveled with Dick Cheney on Air Force Two to hunt on a private hunting reserve owned by an oil industry executive is unsettling. And Scalia's keynote speech before a Philadelphia-based advocacy group which actively opposes gay rights (during a time when the Supreme Court was weighing a landmark gay rights case) has also raised eyebrows. [LA Times]

-- 'On a Mission From God': The Religious Right and the Emerging American Theocracy, by Maureen Farrell

This is the agency which ostracized John O’Neill, and which ignored the Phoenix memorandum and Colleen Rowley’s warnings from Minneapolis. This is the same FBI which could not capture the Unabomber over decades, until his own brother turned him in. This is the same agency which, over the previous months, in the words of Governor Kean of the 9/11 Commission, “failed and failed and failed and failed and failed.” Are we then to believe that on September 14 this troubled and incompetent agency enjoyed a brief interlude of success, as represented by the list of the 19? And if they did succeed that day, they must have soon lapsed back into incompetence again, as seen in their utter failure to prevent the October 2001 anthrax attacks, or ever to identify the perpetrator, perhaps because the anthrax in question was weapons grade material which had come from a US military lab, probably Fort Detrick, Maryland. This was the same FBI whose main activity after 9/11 seemed to consist in confiscating relevant evidence and tampering with witnesses, telling them that [they] had not seen what they knew they had. Anyone familiar with the record will have a very hard time taking seriously such allegations coming from the discredited, dysfunctional FBI.

BUSH AS INVETERATE LIAR

The definitive identification of Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda as the authors of the atrocity came only on September 20, in Bush’s address to a joint session of Congress. Bush stated:

The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda. They are the murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole. […] This group and its leader – a person named Osama Bin Laden – are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries. They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction. The leadership of al Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime in controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan, we see al Qaeda’s vision for the world. […] And tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban: deliver to the United States authorities all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land. […] These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share their fate. […] Our war on terror beings with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated. (Bush 10-11)

Here we can see how inextricably the naming of Bin Laden and al Qaeda is bound up with the unilateral preventive war doctrine, the attack on Afghanistan, and the aggression against Iraq. But let us put these remarks into context. Some months later, delivering his January 2003 State of the Union address from the same podium in the well of the House of Representatives, this same Bush intoned:

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. (January 28, 2003)

These infamous sixteen words added up to one Big Lie in Dr. Goebbel’s sense, as has been amply demonstrated. In the same speech this same Bush claimed:

We’ve also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical and biological weapons across broad areas. We’re concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs for missions targeting the United States. (January 28, 2003)

No such vehicles ever existed. This same Bush also alleged:

From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents and can be moved from place to place to evade inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them. (January 28, 2003)

Mobile labs of the type described by Bush have never been found in Iraq. Experts have speculated that these wildly exaggerated reports were based on vans used for public health purposes, or perhaps on ice cream trucks. On another occasion the very same Bush asserted:

The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has had numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his “nuclear mujahedeen,” his nuclear holy warriors. (October 7, 2002)

But the renewed nuclear program turned out to be a chimera, most likely invented by the neocon darling, convicted bank embezzler, and betrayer of American state secrets, Achmed Chalabi, to justify his $400,000 monthly stipend provided by the American taxpayer. This was the same Bush who had conjured up the specter of an Iraqi nuclear attack on the United States:

Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud. (Cincinnati, Ohio, October 2, 2002)

The internet teems with web sites dedicated primarily to keeping up with Bush’s legendary, picaresque mendacity. Bush has lied about the cost of his prescription drug boondoggle, about nonexistent economic reports he claimed had buttressed his economic prognostications, about all spheres of policy. He has lied about funding first responders, grants for port security, payments to children’s hospitals, and veterans’ benefits. The tenant of the White House has a troubled relation to the very concept of truth.

This is the man who has acquired an unparalleled at home and abroad reputation as a liar – at least, in those quarters, like the Office of Canadian Prime Minister Chretien, where he was dismissed as a moron. This is an administration in which blatant lying has become part of the daily routine – in part because of neocon guru Leo Strauss’s theory that truth is dangerous for the masses, and rulers therefore have to be esoteric, that is, lie through their teeth. But whether Bush is a cretin or a liar, his statements offer no sufficient basis for falling in with the neocons in their march towards endless war against the entire world. Knowing what we knew as of late 2004, no person of good judgment could ever accept statements from the current regime at face value. Nevertheless, otherwise intelligent people who would not dream believing Bush about Iraq or other issues are content to swallow his biggest whopper of them all: his 9/11 story. This doublethink must end. The Bush regime is a castle of lies and fabrications, and the keystone of all of them is the 9/11 myth.

It is now proverbial in Washington to remark that there is no proof linking Saddam Hussein to 9/11, and this is certainly true. But, by the very same token, there is also no proof in the public domain anywhere that adds up to a case against Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda. We should point out that we hold no brief for the misfit sheikh and his sociopathic followers. Bin Laden was a creation of the CIA, and his al Qaeda followers, to the extent that they exist at all, are doubtless individuals characterized by a surfeit of criminal intent. But we must not join the anonymous CIA agent author of the recent book Imperial Hubris in portraying the inept and unstable Bin Laden as a genius. Taken by themselves, Bin Laden and his band represent supermarket-caliber terrorists, capable of bombing a shopping center, or of destroying a bus. Any capabilities above and beyond this can only be explained through assistance provided by intelligence agencies, primarily but not limited to the American ones. There is no doubt that Bin Laden and his benighted gaggle would have desired to inflict destruction on the scale of 9/11. What is at issue is their physical and technical capability of doing so on their own in the universe as we otherwise know it to be constituted. From this point of view, Bin Laden and company emerge perhaps as actors in the plot, but playing the parts of patsies, dupes, fall-guys, or useful idiots. The main point remains that Tenet, Clarke, Powell, the FBI, and Bush have produced no convincing evidence to establish the 19 Moslem men, al Qaeda, and Bin Laden as the authors of the crimes.

Another Bush administration mythograph has been Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense. But Rumsfeld as well has a troubled relation to truth. In a press conference, he was asked if he planned to lie in order to protect state secrets. Rumsfeld boasted that he was clever enough to keep secrets in other ways, but that his underlings might have to preserve secrecy any way they could:

Rumsfeld: Of course, this conjures up Winston Churchill’s famous phrase when he said – don’t quote me on this, okay? I don’t want to be quoted on this, so don’t quote me. He said sometimes the truth is so precious that it must be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies…. That is a piece of history, and I bring it up just for the sake of background. I don’t recall that I’ve ever lied to the press, I don’t intend to, and it seems to me that there will not be reason for it. There are dozens of ways to avoid having to put yourself in a position where you’re lying. And I don’t do it.

Reporter: That goes for everybody in the Department of Defense?

Rumsfeld: You’ve got to be kidding. (Laughter.) (September 25, 2001)

Donald Rumsfeld: You get told things every day that don't happen. It doesn't seem to bother people.

-- Fahrenheit 9/11, by Michael Moore

Theodore Olson, together with his wife Barbara Olson, had been the host of a salon which served in 1998-1999 as a meeting place for one of the principal cliques supporting the Clinton impeachment. This group included the late Wall Street Journal editor Robert Bartley, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Federal Appellate Judge Robert Silberman, failed Supreme Court candidate Robert Bork, and other militant reactionaries. Olson had on one occasion lectured the US Supreme Court that “it is easy to imagine an infinite number of situations…where government officials might quite legitimately have reasons to give false information out.” (Yahoo News, March 22, 2001) Mrs. Olson was later counted among the victims of 9/11; we will return to her story.

In neocon philosophy, the art of lying has been raised to a fine art. Let us take the case of William Kristol, a leading Washington Straussian, and founder of the Project for a New American Century, a congeries of warmongers. Kristol told Nina J. Easton, the author of a profile of some top neocon leaders of the 1990s, Gang of Five (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000) that “One of the main teachings [of Strauss] is that all politics are limited and none of them is really based on the truth. So there's a certain philosophic disposition where you have some distance from these political fights....You don't take yourself or your causes as seriously as you would if you thought this was 100% ‘truth.’ Political movements are always full of partisans fighting for their opinion. But that's very different from 'the truth.'” With the help of money from Rupert Murdoch, Kristol has cultivated the art of the Goebbels Big Lie since 1995 in his weekly magazine, the Weekly Standard, the neocon house organ.

But, discredited as Tenet, Clarke, Powell, the FBI, Rumsfeld, Kristol, and Bush may appear, perhaps other proof has been offered since? No.

In the days right after the attacks, Colin Powell promised the world a white paper or white book to set forth the contentions of the United States government about what had happened, with supporting evidence. Powell did this on NBC’s Meet the Press, where the following exchange occurred on September 23, 2001:

Question: Are you absolutely convinced that Osama Bin Laden was responsible for this attack?

Secretary Powell: I am absolutely convinced that the al Qaeda network, which he heads, was responsible for this attack. […]

Question: Will you release publicly a white paper, which links him and his organization to this attack, to put people at ease?

Secretary Powell: We are hard at work bringing all the information together, intelligence information, law enforcement information. And I think, in the near future, we will be able to put out a paper, a document, that will describe quite clearly the evidence we have linking him to the attack. And also, remember, he has been linked to previous attacks against US interests and he was already indicated for earlier attacks against the United States. ( http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2001/5012.htm )

[Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed, Professor of Contemporary History, University of Sussex] If you go to the FBI website, they've got Usama bin Laden, and if you go to Usama bin Laden's webpage on the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorist List," you'll find that he's been indicted for the 1998 attacks, but not for 9/11. And in fact, a number of journalists called up the FBI and said, "Well, look. Why have you not connected bin Laden to 9/11?" And they said, "Well, we're afraid we just don't have the evidence."

The following day, September 24, saw a front page article in the New York Times which bragged that Powell’s evidence “reaches from the southern tip of Manhattan to the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan.” However, there was clearly something wrong with the US case, since, in an appearance with Bush at the White House rose garden on September 24, Powell somewhat obliquely retracted his promise. And on that same afternoon, Bush’s spokesman Ari Fleischer, a past master of mendacity, said that Powell had been the victim of a misunderstanding. No white paper would be forthcoming, he suggested. According to Fleischer, much of the information of Bin Laden was classified, and making it public would compromise US intelligence methods and sources. Even the press trollops in the White House briefing room rebelled at this attempted sleight of hand. A reporter challenged Ari, asking if there was in fact “any plan to present public evidence so that the average citizen, not just Americans, but people all over the world can understand the case against Bin Laden.” Fleischer disappeared in a cloud of verbiage: “In a democracy it’s always important to provide the maximum amount of information possible. But I think the American people also understand that there are going to be times when that information cannot immediately be forthcoming.” As of this writing, it still has not been forthcoming.

Bush himself rejected any white paper. He said that any such publication may “make the war more difficult to win.” (AP, September 24, 2001) Amidst much embarrassment, the Bush regime quickly fell back on the following ploy: they would assemble a watertight case against Bin Laden, but this was so sensitive that could only be shown to governments. We must always bear in mind that these assertions were not presented in the manner of a scholarly debate, but as part of brutal pressure on sovereign states to yield to Bush’s manichean Diktat.

Even though Bush did not have enough information on the 9/11 events to put out a credible white paper, he nevertheless ordered the FBI to curtail their investigation of the case. The FBI order to stop probing described the investigation done so far as “the most exhaustive in its history.” A government official said in an understatement that “The investigative staff has to be made to understand that we’re not trying to solve a crime now.”

[Emily Robison] After the comment, when we got all the criticism, it was just a really scary time.It was just wrong what happened, not only to us,but other people that were, you know, shut upor made to feel threatenedfor feeling a certain way, you know, about the war or whatever.

[Natalie Maines] Everything was so bizarre, it was almost humorous.I just could not believepeople cared what I said.

[Martie Maguire] But it had to be somebodyor some group that seemed likethe all-American girls. It was perfect.It had to bethe unlikely voicefrom what looked likethe conservative heart of America saying it.That was perfect.To me, it was something really just an episode,and okay, we're gonna lose some record sales,and it's more important to stand up for what's right,and be a strong unit together and support each other.But then when the death threat came, I thought,"Okay, this is a different league. It's a totally different league."

[Richard Coble, tour manager] They have a guy, the police have, reason to believe he might be the guy.

[Martie Maguire] Really?

[Richard Coble, tour manager] Because he's made other threatsagainst senators in the same way --

[Martie Maguire] Can they make sure he's nowhere near Dallas?

[Richard Coble, tour manager] I'm gonna have a policeman on him for the whole time we're in Dallas,and outside his house, and just so they're always on him the whole time.

[E.J. Wojtowicz, head of security] They think this is the person.

[Martie Maguire] God.

[E.J. Wojtowicz, head of security] The handwriting sort of matches.The FBI had some intelligence on this guywith some other threats,possibly to you guys, but they didn't share it to anybody.We're trying to get more info on it,but we're gonna have people watching him during the show.

[Natalie Maines] He's kind of cute.He is. He's a good-looking guy.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] The hairspray's got you.

[All the men laugh]

[Martie Maguire] When we start Texas, we're in serious danger territory.So get your shit together because --

[Emily Robison] It's very scary.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] As I said, we're making some changes with security.This should be a Texas Rangers issue.No one fucks with the Texas Rangers.

[Natalie Maines] Do you think the National Guard should be in Dallas?

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] The National Guard?

[Natalie Maines] [Nodding her head "yes"]

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] What, like tanks?Armored personnel carriers?

[Natalie Maines] [Nodding her head "yes"] Uh-hmm.

[Martie Maguire] Like they do at the airports.

[Natalie Maines] Inside the building?Keeping an eye on the section?

[Martie Maguire] If I was a person bringing a gun into a show,I'd bring the smallest possible gunand I'd probably put it in my crotchbecause nobody is gonna feel somebody's crotch up.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] I wouldn't. I'd put it up in my ankle.

[Martie Maguire] They wand your feet.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] They don't get down that far.

[Martie Maguire] And you expect us to want to play a show in Dallasand you're telling us they don't feel people's legs.

[Martie Maguire] I mean, I know how vulnerable I feel. I can't imagine how Natalie feels.Standing up there, you feel so naked.So naked.

***

SAN ANTONIO

4 HOURS BEFORE THE DALLAS CONCERT

[Emily Robison] Hello.The last thing I said to Charlie was ..."I'll call you tonight if I don't get shot." [Laughs]

[Natalie Maines] Ooooh!

***

[Mindi Pelletier, road manager] Say, 6:30, we walk out the door at 6:45and we fly in, and then when we land,the cops are gonna take us right to the stage.There's never any time where we're stopped inside the venue.

[Natalie Maines] Hi, Asvia. This is Natalie Pasdar.You gave me a reading about a year ago, probably.I just wanna know if you feel likeI'm in any dangeror if I'm safe.So please give me a call. Thank you, bye.

***

DALLAS

[Electronic whining]

[Sirens wailing]

[Man] Be right there.Come in, Mindi.

[Crowd Cheering & Yelling]

[Mindi Pelletier, road manager] I'm not expecting to look at anybodybefore we walk out of the room and say, "Is it clear?"I'm just expecting it to be clear. And I want someone in front of mewhen we're walking, and I want someone to be sitting therewaiting for us when we get there.

I'm not ready to make niceI'm not ready to back downI'm still mad as hell and I don't have timeTo go round and round and roundIt's too late to make it rightI probably wouldn't if I could'Cause I'm mad as hell, can't bring myselfTo do what it is you think I shouldI know ...

[Dan Wilson, recording artist] I had proposed a song ideato them called "Undivided,"'Cause I thought that People were being divided by politicsand being like, "Okay, you have to be on this side,and you have to be on this side. Now you all go ahead and hate each other."

It remains highly significant that Bush began his public political career in the ideological guise of a southern Republican, specifically in Texas. ... In order to create a Republican Party in the south, it was first necessary to smash the old FDR New Deal constituent of labor, the cities, farmers, blacks, and the Solid South. ... The method that the southern Republicans devised to breach this solid front was the one theorized years later by Lee Atwater, the manager of Bush's 1988 Presidential campaign. This was the technique of the 'wedge issues,' so called precisely because they were chosen to split up the old New Deal coalition using the chisels of ideology. The wedge issues are also known as the 'hot-button social issues,' and the most explosive among them has always tended to be race. ... Racial invective, anti-union demagogy, jingoistic chauvinism, the smearing of opponents for their alleged fealty to 'special interests' ... these ideas were further refined in Richard Nixon's brain trust, presided over by Wall Street bond lawyer John Mitchell ... and received their definitive elaboration from Kevin Phillips who advanced the thesis that the 'whole secret of politics is in knowing who hates who,' which is of course another way of speaking of wedge issues. The result of the successful application of the Southern Strategy in 1968 and in the following years has been a period of more than two decades of one-party Republican control over the Executive Branch ... which has proven a mighty stimulus to those tendencies towards authoritarian and even totalitarian rule which have culminated in the Administrative Fascism of the current Bush regime.

And be about also how the girls have dealt with controversy.Instead of being divided and conquered,they stuck together. Natalie thought about it for a second.Then she said, "Well, does that meanthat in the song I would have to forgive the peoplewho did all that to us?"And I said, "Maybe it would for the song. Maybe it would."And she went, "Nope."

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] And how in the world can the words that I saidSend somebody so over the edgeThat they'd write me a letter sayingThat I better shut up and singOr my life will be over?

[Martie Maguire] That's just the most emotional song on the record for me.It took about, I'd say, a hundred listensbefore I didn't get choked up,literally, just every time I play it for somebody,or heard it in the car or whatever, it made me realize how raw the emotions still were.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] I'm still mad as hell and I don't have timeTo go round and round and roundIt's too late to make it rightI probably wouldn't if I could ...

[News Anchorwoman] The Dixie Chicks may soon cause a stir with lyricsfrom their upcoming album.

[THE DIXIE CHICKS GROUP NOW OUT WITH NEW ALBUM AND UNAPOLOGETIC SINGLE]

[Joe Levy, Rolling Stone Magazine] This single "Not Ready to Make Nice"is not big on the radio,and is really not big on country radio.

[Paul Beane, general manager krbl lubbock] The Dixie Chicks have all but challengedcountry music stations to stop playing their music.

***

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Joanne's email this morning was the south of the Mason-Dixon Line.We have no one other than one station --

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] So girls, one thing that did come up today in my meeting with Sony,the big concern that they have iswe really don't know what's gonna happen on radio.They wanna have us doing as much TVas we can get done. So let me throw out some TV ideasand get some feedback from you:"The View," if it was just an interviewwith Barbara Walters,and if we went inand we did the production as opposed to "The View" doing the production."Regis and" --

[Natalie Maines] Kelly? [Laughing]

[Martie Maguire] Now tell us, first, with each showwhat's the mandatory performance?

[Natalie Maines] Okay, can I just throw this out there?Why can't we ...can we decide what kind of artists we want to be right now?

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Sure.

[Natalie Maines] Can we be the Bruce Springsteenand the Bob Dylan -- not that I'm comparing our musicand ourselves to them -- but do we have to beon everything that they'll let us be on?I just don't care.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Here's what everyone is wrestling with.You are the biggest-selling group in North America in the last eight years.No one has sold, combined, more records than you have.

[Natalie Maines] I don't give a shit what Sony wants. We know what Sony wants -- money.Yeah, we've always been a cash cow. They're worried we're not gonna be that.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] I think what they're wrestling withis they're wrestling with expectations.They look at you as the act that they expectto drive more sales with than any other band on Columbiareleasing an album this year.

***

[Photographer] Hey, Natalie, Natalie.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] How do you love without sympathy?Who's gonna be the oneTo speak for me?

***

[Woman Interviewer] I read that you all felt like this album wasa rebirth or kind of like starting over.

[Natalie Maines] Everything seems like the first time again.

[Emily Robison] We knew it had to be personal.

[Martie Maguire] It feels really good.

[Geoff Mayfield, Director of Charts, Billboard Magazine] As we expected, Dixie Chicks album debutedat number one on the Billboard 200 and of course, on our country albums chart as well.

[Diane Sawyer] Everybody is talking about the Dixie Chicks.They're right there on the cover of "Time" magazine.

***

[Woman Interviewer] Does it still surprise you what went down?

[Emily Robison] The biggest surprise to mewas how many people were terrified to even be associated with us.

[Man] Public opinion has changed so much in the last three years.You know, Bush's approval rating is kind of down. Does that impact on you?

[Natalie Maines] I think we just made the album we -- not even wanted to make,but needed to make.

***

[BUSH'S POLL PROBLEM, THE SITUATION ROOM]

[CNN News Anchorman Wolf Blitzer] The new poll is certainly a blow for the presidentshowing a public fed up with the war and his handling of it.

[CASE FOR WAR]

[ABC Anchorwoman] Tonight questions about claims the Presidentand members of his administration made in 2003.

[NEW DEVELOPMENTS, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?, THE SITUATION ROOM]

[Man] There are a lot of legitimate questions about this President,how he misled the public on the issue of weapons of mass destruction.

[THE SUN: TOP INSPECTOR SAYS IRAQ HAD NO ILLICIT ARMS]

[President George Bush] We did not find the weapons of mass destructionand that's raised questions about whether the sacrificein Iraq has been worth it.

[LATEST POLL: 59% SAY THE WAR IN IRAQ WAS A MISTAKE]

[Man] 59% call the war in Iraq a mistake.

[Man] [To Donald Rumsfeld] Why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessaryand that has caused these kinds of casualties?

[360° RAW DATA: WAR CASUALTIES]

[Man] As we mentioned earlier, the number of U.S. deaths has hit 2,500and so far, 18,490 troops have been wounded.

***

[Howard Stern] The President has completely blown it with this war.I am sorry about what I said, I'll tell you the truth.

[Woman] [About the Dixie Chicks] 'Cause they took a very bold and brave stand.

[Howard Stern] You guys were absolutely right. Right now you're not wearing panties.

[Natalie Maines] Nope.

[Howard Stern] Is that a political thing?

[Woman] Is that a Dixie Chick thing?

[Natalie Maines] I won't wear panties until the war is over.

***

[Kidd Manning, program director kqbr lubbock] They got a number-one-selling albumand didn't have to depend on radio to do it.

[Woman] Does it matter to you how this album does?

[Natalie Maines] I'm more scared about if the tour will sellthan the records.

[Emily Robison] Yeah, than buy the album.No matter what, we will always make music,but there's a certain energy and just that adrenalinewhen you go out onstage and you have those fansthat are there. The live show, for me, is the -- is the total payoff.When you have seven kids, you can't go back to the RV.

[Natalie Maines] [Laughs]

[Emily Robison] You can't --you can't pile everybody in and, you know, go play small clubs.I won't go out without my family. And so I thinkyou have to maintain a certain level of touring.So, you know, to me that's -- that'll be the measure of success.

[Natalie Maines] Arenas or nothing.

[Both laugh]

***

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] There's a whole new deal that's been proposed.AG will make an offer for the entire tour.The guarantee is basically $26 million, versus a 90-10 deal.

[Natalie Maines] You keep saying the word "risk -- we're covering our risk."What it comes down to is if we want to take that risk.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Absolutely.

[Natalie Maines] And maybe I'm bass-ackwards here,but I would rather know that we took the riskand had faith and lose out on moneythan to do what I think it's gonna do and sell outand have that feeling of, "Why didn't we fucking have confidence in ourselves?"

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Hang on. No, no, no.You know what? If we're gonna have this conversation,we should involve Al in it, and we should just look at the economics.

[Al] You're not gonna set out in Nashville,you won't sell out in Memphis, you won't sell out in Oklahoma City.Now, I mean, we can lose money really quick.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] I know we can.

[Al] Here was an option for you to hedge your bet.If you don't wanna hedge,you don't wanna hedge.

[Natalie Maines] I am -- I am saying I get all of this.

[Emily Robison] I'm totally with Natalie.

[Martie Maguire] And it's --

[Natalie Maines] And as hard --as hard as you think it is for us to work, it'll be harder for me to workwith a tour that sold out in two fucking daysand I didn't bet on myself when I knew I shouldand I'm taking --and it's not even about the money! I'll be pissed at myself.That will make me unhappy. It's almost like if you don't sell itand you took a gamble on yourself, just like how --it lights a fire. It makes you fight.Just like --

[Man] Thank you. Philadelphia, pull back.Pull back, Atlanta.So don't roll any of them with the exception of Toronto.

[Man on phone] Really? Okay, bye-bye.

***

[Man on phone] So we rolled Toronto. What else is happening?

[John Meglen, AEG Live] Toronto rolled right out.The other ones -- you still had open seats.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] It's the South.

[John Meglen, AEG Live] Atlanta is definitely slow.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Yeah.

[Man on phone] This is not good.I mean, I hate to throw a dose of reality on this.

[John Meglen, AEG Live] I don't disagree with you.

[Man on phone] I mean, even in Boston --those aren't good counts. We've gotta be honest with each other,they're not good counts.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] No.

***

[Rob Light, Creative Artists Agency] Can I throw a radical idea out here?Do we take Milwaukee, KC, Saint Louis, Indy, Des Moines,literally move them back into Octoberand try to just slam Canada in-out of Chicago and Minnie|and go spend our time up in Canada?

[Rob Light, Creative Artists Agency] Yeah.And that's where we're at. We are not selling to country right now.We are selling to a new audience.

[Simon Renshaw, Manager] Well, we're not -- yeah.

[Rob Light, Creative Artists Agency] We're a new band. And the next tour we do,if this record is a hit to the new audience,we're back playing -- that's where we're rebuilding a careerwith a whole new -- it's a new band and a new audience.

Humpty Dumpty Sat on a WallHumpty Dumpty Had a Great FallAll the King's Horses, All the King's MenCould Not Put Humpty Dumpty Together Again

-- Humpty Dumpty, by Turtle Interactive

***

[People chattering]

[Emily Robison] It feels like we've been beat upand then we've been pushed back in the ring.It's just emotionally draining and -- and --

[Natalie Maines] And the tour, I think it's the first ...non-success we've had.People ask about sluggish tickets ...there's no denying we have sluggish tickets.I'm not -- and I'm not embarrassed by that.So I don't feel the need to put a spin on it.

[Emily Robison] But I think it had gotten to the point where it was just kind of scary --when the ticket sales were sluggish --that we had committed to a lot of people.You know, these people depended on us for the next six months of their lives.It's a huge burden and, at the same time, it's a lot of stress.

***

[Acoustic guitar playing]

[Emily Robison] We know everyone's been hearing a lot of rumors about the tour ...what's happening,and we just wanted to settle all the rumors,just saying that we will be starting the tour on the 21st of July as planned.

[Natalie Maines] Oh-oh -- we did want to say thoughwe are having to cut cornersin places and meat's expensive and y'all drink a lot of beersso both of those are off.

[All laughing]

***

LONDON

SOLD OUT DIXIE CHICKS

15TH JUN

SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE

JUNE 2006

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] When the calls and conversationsAccidents and accusationsMessages and misperceptionsParalyze my mindBuses, cars ...

[Emily Robison] If you gauge your careerby how many people buy your albums or are at the concert,I don't think we'll ever be in that place again.But, you know, it's giving us this fire back.I don't know, there's just something to say for --having that back, that want to ...garner new fans, or uh ...just prove yourself all over again.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] ... You create for meAnd the way you keep the world at bay for me ...The way you keep the world at bay for me ...

[Martie Maguire] I think Natalie still feels pressure about what's happened,even though we say over and over and over again,"It was the best thing" -- I can tell her that and shake her all day long."It's the best thing that ever happened to me. It's the best thingthat ever happened to our career.We'd never change it. You're fine.You didn't do anything."[Starts crying]

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] And the way you keep the world at bay for me ...

[Martie Maguire] [Sobbing] And I just think she still --she still, um ...feels responsible.And if she came to me tomorrow and said,"I don't want to tour. I don't want to record anymore.I don't want to do this,"I care for her. I'd say, "Okay." I'd give up my career ...for her to be happy, be at peace.

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] Children lose their youth too soonWatching war made us immuneAnd I've got all the world to loseBut I just want to hold on to ...The easy silence that you make for meIt's okay when there's nothing more to say to meAnd the peaceful quiet you create for meAnd the way you keep the world at bay for meThe way you keep the world at bay for meThe way you keep the world at bay

[Audience cheering]

***

[Natalie Maines] Uh, it's great to be back at Shepherds Bush.

[Crowd cheering and yelling]

[Natalie Maines] The return to the scene of the crime.

[Crowd cheering and yelling]

[Natalie Maines] [Laughing] And all week, the only thing people keep asking is,"What are you gonna say? Do you know what you're gonna say?"And as usual, I didn't plan anything,but I thought I'd say something brand newand just say, "Just so you know,we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas."

[Crowd going crazy]

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] My friends from high schoolMarried their high school boyfriendsMoved into housesIn the same ZIP codes where their parents liveBut I ... I could never followNo, I ... I could never followI hit the highwayIn a pink RV with stars on the ceilingLived like a gypsySix strong hands on the steering wheelI've been a long time gone nowMaybe someday, someday I'm gonna settle downBut I've always found my way somehowBy taking the long wayTaking the long way aroundTaking the long wayTaking the long way aroundI'm taking the long wayTaking the long, long wayI'm taking the long wayTaking the long way aroundI'm taking the long wayTaking the long way aroundI'm taking the long way

[Natalie Maines] [Singing] Don't let them tell you what it's all aboutI'm right beside you, a dreamer you can do withoutI know you well, but we've never metAlways the same, always the safe betI know it's happening, I've seen it beforeUninvited, I'll be coming to your back doorLock all your windows, hide under your bedI hear you breathing, I know you're there.You can turn off the lightYou can turn off your mindYou can shut me outBut I'll still be hereI'll still be hereYou can tune me out, try to shut me downBut I'll still be hereYou wanna see things all the sameWhy don't you see things in color for a change?I'm waiting and listening, trying to walk in your shoesThey walk a straight line, such a straight lineI'll drop my fences if you'll drop your guardMeet me on the front porch, stop hiding in your backyardUnlock your windows, come out from the bedYour TV's glowing, I know you're thereYou can turn it aroundDo you like how it sounds?You can turn me offBut I'll still be here, yeahStill be here, yeahYou can turn me down, but I have to shout it outI'll still be hereOoh-ooh!Who'd get away with empathy?How do you love without sympathy?And who's gonna be the one to speak for me?I'll still be hereI'll still be here, yeahStill be hereI'll still be here, yeahI'll still be hereI'll still be hereStill be hereI'll still beStill be here, yeahI'll still beStill be hereI'll still be[Humming]I'll still beI'll still beSaid I'll be hereI'll still beWhether you like it or notI'll still be